Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies
by Abbie1212
Summary: Rosewood's a completely different place, and our favorite liars' lives are much different seeing that Alison's alive to run their lives instead of A. What happens when a newcomer, Ezra Fitz, moves into Ali's territory and threatens the world she's worked so hard to constructfor herself? Aria/Ezra centered but everyone's in the mix.
1. Welcome Aboard

Disclaimer: Ok, so don't own Pretty Little Liars, and don't really plan on it anytime soon….

A/N: So, this idea came to me…. And I was wondering if it could work… so I gave it a shot… not sure how long it would be… but if you guys like it, I'll keep going. It's a little tweaked so that Jason and Ezra are a little closer to the girls' ages… Read. Enjoy. Review ( no, seriously so I know whether or not to continue)… Jason/Aria/Ezra (will eventually be predominantly Ezra)

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter One:

**** Five Years Ago ** **

Aria Montgomery stood in front of the mirror, playing with a strand of her newly highlighted pink hair. She still wasn't quite sure on the color choice, but it would do. At least it matched her new outfit, all ready for sixth grade. She took a deep breath and fixed the pink-rhinestone skeleton on her necklace so that the clasp wasn't down in front beside the medallion. She blinked, unable to fully comprehend that she was finally going to be in sixth grade, where she had some sort of status – instead of a lowly fifth grader. She would command more respect now, right?

"Ready for school?" Ella Montgomery walked into her daughter's room.

"Yeah, I think so," Aria turned around and flashed a smile at her mother.

"Good because there's someone downstairs who wants to see you."

"Who?"

"You'll just have to see," Her mother smiled knowingly as she stepped aside so her daughter could run downstairs.

Aria ran down the stairs as fast her legs could carry her, and passed her brother in the living room. He was still in his pajamas – the elementary school started much later than the middle school, he was playing with a few toy trucks. Aria then went into the kitchen to see Jason DiLaurentis standing in her kitchen with his backpack slung over his shoulder. Jason was the cutest eighth grader in the school, and the fact that he was standing in the middle of Aria's kitchen was a huge deal. She couldn't wait until she could tell her best friend Emily.

"Hey Aria," He smiled, and all Aria could think was how easily he could have been one of the guys in one of her magazines.

"Hi."

"I was wondering if you wouldn't mind-" He stopped, then took a deep breath, "If you wouldn't mind if I walked you to the bus."

"Of course you can," Aria smiled as her mother walked into the room.

"Aria, take a muffin," Ella said as she got her camera out, "Do you want one, Jason?"

"No, I just had breakfast, thank you," He replied, and Ella smiled as she took her camera off the counter.

"Can I get a fist day of school shot?"

"Mom!" Aria was embarrassed, but Jason shrugged it off.

"Sure, Mrs. Montgomery," He replied, draping an arm around Aria's shoulders as the flash went off.

**** Present Day ** **

Aria smiled as she looked of the photograph of her and her boyfriend, Jason from the first day of school back in sixth grade. Her parents weren't aware of it then, but that was also the first day that she had started dating Jason DiLaurentis. He had helped her onto the bus, and then he had sat with her, and asked her halfway to the school before he had asked her if she had wanted to be his girlfriend. And now, she was sitting on the couch with him the night before their first day of sophomore and senior years of high school.

Jason had never changed from the sandy haired gorgeous guy he had been since he was thirteen. His hair had darkeed a little, and his beautiful eyes had only grown more intense, sexier. He had grown from a beautiful boy to a gorgeous man. And Aria was beautiful, they were the poster couple at the school – which was not something that Aria particularly liked about her charmed life, but everything else was ok.

"It's weird to think how little we were when we started dating," Jason voiced as Aria put the scrapbook back on the coffee table and leaned back into her boyfriend's arms.

"It is, we were just babies," She said as Jason kissed the side of her head.

"Babies who knew what they wanted," He smiled, then leaned in and kissed her briefly.

"Jason," Ella said as she and Byron walked into the room, "It's getting late, isn't it?"

"You guys have school tomorrow, remember," Byron added.

"I should be getting home," Jason said, checking his wrist watch, and Aria pouted – he chuckled, "Walk me out?"

He and Aria walked out to the front porch, and promptly sat down in the swing. It had become tradtion for them, and their parents always teased them that it always took an hour for either of them to leave the other.

"I love you so much, Aria Montgomery," Jason said as he nuzzled his nose into her hair.

"I love you too," She smiled up at him, "I've always loved you, and I always will."

"Who says fairytales don't really happen?" He chuckled as he brushed her hair out of her face and kissed her forehead.

"People who don't have what we have," Aria replied and he brought her hand up and kissed the back of her hand.

"I'll be here to pick you up for school in the morning, ok?" He replied, "I'll be here right at seven."

"After all these years you're still picking me up for school," She smiled as they got up and headed over towards the porch steps.

"Well your mom does make the best muffins in the neighborhood," He teased and she rolled her eyes.

"Just for that, you might just have to skip your good night kiss."

"Really? Look who's laying down the law," He chuckled, leaning in and kissing her anyways, not that she was about to complain, "I love you – sweet dreams, Aria."

Jason showed up the next morning as he did everyday without fail. Once they had gotten into high school, and Jason had started to drive they had brought his sister, one of Aria's best friends, Alison, with them to school. She waited in the car while Jason went in to get Aria. They would bring her out a muffin, and hand it to her as she hopped into the backseat.

"Good morning," Alison said as Jason handed her the muffin and Aria hopped in the front seat.

"Did you get your class schedule?" Aria asked her as Jason took off towards school.

"Yeah," Alison replied, holding her hand out for Aria to give her her's so that she could compare.

"You have English with Spencer and Hanna, Chemistry with me," Alison took a breath, "P.E. with nobody, History with nobody, and Health with Jason and Emily."

"You haven't taken Health yet?" Aria was surprised with Jason, she could have sworn he had taken itt.

"No, never got around to it," He replied, smiling, "That's great though. We get to take it together."

"You did this on purpose."

"Yes, I totally put that much thought into it," He joked, but Aria wasn't so sure that it was entirely a joke.

Jason pulled his car into his parking spot near the entrance of the school. They were still relatively early, and they could see their group of friends – Hanna, Emily, Spencer, Toby, Ben, and Sean standing by the bicycle racks near the front door. They all hopped out of the car, Jason eager to grab hold of Aria's hand as they walked towards their friends. Alison, whom everyone considered the ring leader of their group, but no one really let it get to them. It was true, she just cared about things like that more than everyone else.

"Oh no, it's you losers," Ben joked as we walked over.

"Oh the married couple," Sean smiled as we reached them.

"Hey, as long as they're happy," Alison gave a condescending, controlling smile, "That's all that matters."

"Spencer, you have first period with Aria."

"Oh, fun, that's great." Spencer said, "I didn't think anyone would be in my English class this year. They couldn't put me in AP because of restraints so they threw me in with the seniors instead, so that I could do AP next year."

"That's what they did with me too," Aria chuckled as Jason ran his fingertips up the sensitive underside of her arm.

"Hey, man," Toby said, "Anyone have Davis first?"

"I do," Jason said happily as the bell rang – Jason kissed the top of Aria's head - and they all headed off to first period.

Aria and Spencer picked seats towards the middle left of the room, and as the classroom filled up what few extra seats that were left were left near them, one of which right next to Aria. Spencer was sitting just behind her, to try and minimalize how they were effecting the rest of the senior class. Who, from the conversations they were overhearing seemed to already have contracted senioritis – on the first day.

"Hello, class," said Mr. Parr as he walked into the class, "I'd like you to welcome a new student, Mr. Ezra Fitz to Rosewood High."

Aria looked up from getting her notebook ready to see the boy standing with Mr. Parr at the front of the class. He was tall, a little slimmer than Jason, but still quite muscular looking. He had dark hair and deep, almost pained looking eyes. He was utterly and completely gorgeous from the top of his wavy dark haired head, to the bottom of his converse. He had a leather messenger bag slung around him, and was staring shyly right at Aria. She blinked, trying to make sure her jaw wasn't flat on the desk, but more than that she tried to figure out whether it even mattered if it was or it wasn't. She couldn't even remember her own name.

"Take a seat," Mr. Parr told him, and Ezra hastily took the seat immediately to Aria's left, right in the front, "Why don't you tell us a little about yourself, Ezra?"

"Well," He swallowed, he was adorably uncomfortable speaking about himself, in that setting, "I'm eighteen years old, and my Mom and I just moved here from the city."

"Which city?" Aria asked it before she could even stop herself.

"New York," He turned to her and replied.

The second his eyes met hers there was something there. Aria's brain immediately filled with all sorts of thoughts involving Ezra. Moonlight and candles, and chasing him around a beach, playing in the waves, sitting on the hood of his car in the middle of a field with no one around but each other. Aria blinked, breaking the connection as she forced herself to face forward and listen as Parr was starting to drone on. She tried thinking of Jason, and how much he would disapprove, and be hurt by Aria's thoughts. She took a deep breath.

She had been with Jason since she was eleven years old, no matter what Alison claimed – he was her best friend. They had been together so long, that it was expected Rosewood was used to them together, and they worked. It wasn't so volatile as some sort of whirlwind romance. There was romance, but it was more subtle, and they were in love. But there was no great moment that Aria could pinpoint that she had just had with Ezra… She physically shook her head to get any thought of it out of her head. She was with Jason, she loved Jason.

"Hi, I'm Spencer," She hopped up right after the bell rang, extending a hand to Ezra, "This is Aria."

"Hi."

"Hey," Aria said, trying to be friendly – biting back every urge that he evoked.

"What do you girls have next?" Ezra asked shyly.

"You won't have our classes," Spencer told him, "We're sophomores."

"Well they ordered classes a lot differently at my old school," He replied, "So my classes are all mixed up."

"Oh, so what do you have next?" Spencer asked.

"Ah, Chemistry," He replied, "With Mrs. Nomad?"

"That's my next class," Aria said and his eyes widened in excitement.

"Would you mind showing me the way, then?" He asked and she shrugged.

"Sure, why not?"

They headed out into the hall and parted with Spencer.

"So when'd you move here?" Aria asked, keeping her eyes looking forward without a single thought to change the direction to look at Ezra again.

"Got here a couple weeks ago," He replied, "My mom married some guy who lives here."

"She made you move for your senior year?" Aria pointed out, "That sucks."

"It does."

"You had to leave all your friends behind a year early."

"Eh, I didn't have to many friends to begin with," He replied, "My brother stayed with our father in New York, I figured I'd restart early."

"Your brother?"

"Twin brother," He replied.

"I can't believe that you didn't have too many friends," Aria said, finding it easier and easier to talk to him as they neared the chemistry classroom.

"I like to read, and write a lot," He replied, as Aria tried to find a lab table, and he followed her, "It tends to seclude me from everyone else."

"I know what you mean," Aria replied as she sat, and he next to her, "I run into the same problem."

"You write?"

"More than anything," Aria said, then looked to change the subject, "My best friend Alison's in this class…"

"Oh," He said, hopping up kindly, "Then you'll want to partner up with her."

"No, sit," Aria said, rolling her eyes as she took out her schedule, "She won't show up."

"She won't?" Ezra looked confused as he sat back down.

"No, she has me in this class," Aria took a deep breath, "That's how Ali works. She never goes to her own classes if she can help it. She'll take my notes and use me to help her with everything else."

"That, sounds like it sucks," He replied and I shrugged.

"That's Alison," I said, "We've been best friends since we were twelve."

"People change I guess, you don't necessarily have to ditch them as friends," Ezra reasoned and I shook my head.

"No, Ali's always been that way," I replied, "Just like she's always been my boyfriend's sister."

"Oh, gotcha. Boyfriend?" He was trying to play it cool, but he looked absolutely crushed.

"Five years today," Aria pretended not to notice.

"Five years?" He was instantly able to hide his disappointment with shock, "You've been together since you were eleven?"

"That's quick math," I pointed out and he nodded.

"How.. wouldn't you…"

His confusion was interrupted by Mrs. Nomad walking into the class. Aria passed her schedule over to Ezra for him to be able to compare, and just her luck perfect boy with weirdly every gorgeous feature imaginable was in every single one of her classes, without fail. She took a deep breath and pushed her schedule back into her bag, taking a deep breath. She kept telling herself that she could do this. She could be friends with Ezra, and could maintain her relationship with Jason – no sweat. What Jason and she had was rare, a storybook romance of the boy next door forever loving the girl next door. No one could ruin that. Even Ezra with his gorgeous eyes and dark wavy hair.

"It's time for lunch?" Ezra was looking at his schedule as they left P.E.

"Yeah, c'mon you can sit with my friends and I if you want," Aria said and Ezra smiled.

"Who's this?" Alison met them halfway to the table.

"Ezra Fitz," Aria replied, "Ezra, this is Alison DiLaurentis. He's new, Ali. I thought he could sit with us."

"Good to meet you," Ezra smiled, "Aria's told me so much about you."

Aria had to keep back a chuckle, Alison would never catch it – but the last bit was not a flattering statement.

"Hmmm, I guess you can sit with us, if you want," Alison said and Aria had to keep herself from rolling her eyes.

"What's going on?" Jason asked as he came over, and promptly wrapped his arms around Aria – she didn't know why but for some reason she really wished he hadn't.

"Jason, this is Ezra," Aria introduced them as Jason kissed her cheek, then stood upright to extend a hand to him, "He's new, he just moved here from New York City."

"New York City?" Alison looked surprised, and she looked back at Ezra, wasn't pleased with the introduction with Jason, but was putting on a good mask.

Once again, Aria thought it would be best if she just didn't notice. Alison was already headed back to the table, and Ezra looked at me like 'is this girl for real?'. Jason chuckled as she shouldered my back and lead the way, a few paces behind Queen Bee.

"Don't worry," Jason whispered with a friendly smile, "We only let her think she's in charge."

Ezra chuckled a little under his breath as Jason and Aria took their seats on one side of the table, Ezra took his right across from them.

"Everyone, this is Ezra," Alison announced to the table at large, "Ezra, This is Hanna, Sean, Spencer, Toby, Emily, Ben, and of course you've met Aria and Jason. Ezra is going to come to the party Friday night with us."

"Welcome aboard," Ben joked and Ali looked scary.

"Ben."

"Sorry, Ali," He replied as Alison went off to stalk Ian, one of the seniors who was a known druggy.

"I'm going to a party Friday night?" Ezra was totally confused as to what had just happened.

"It's Noel Kahn's beginning of the year party," Jason filled him in, "It's a lot of fun – and Alison really does mean well."


	2. You're Drunk

A/N: Hey guys! Hope you all are having a fantastic day, and enjoy the second chapter… (I'm going to try and put in a flashback at the beginning of every chapter, at least in the beginning…) Read. Enjoy. Review. :)

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Two:

**** Five Years Ago ** **

"You ready to go?" Jason appeared on Aria's doorstep.

He was dressed in blue cargo short bathing suit with a grey shirt thrown on. His hair was haphazardly strewn across his face and his crooked smile all in combination made Aria's stomach turn. How was she so lucky? They had been together almost a week at that point and he was coming by to get her for Noel Kahn's Pool party? The party he had every year just before his parents closed the pool for the winter, which everyone went to.

"I'm ready," She replied, picking up her bag with her towel, and a change of clothes.

"You look cute," He smiled and she blushed as he took her bag for her.

"Have fun," Ella said, coming out of the kitchen with Mike, who was all dressed for Soccer Practice, "Jason, tell your mother I'll pick you kids up tonight, around ten right?"

"Yeah, Noel's dad's setting up a fire for us," Jason smiled and the world was just perfect, "Thanks, I'm sure she'll appreciate that."

They hopped into the backseat of Jason's mother's car, Jason's sister, Alison, was sitting in the front seat. Aria had had few run ins with Alison, but hadn't really come away from any of her encounters with her with a good feeling inside. However, she was Jason's sister and no matter what people said at school, Aria was determined to be friends with her, even if she was a hard person to be around for extended periods of time. She really didn't know how Jason did it.

"Are you excited, Aria?" Alison smiled as their mother drove us over to Noel's house, a couple streets away.

"Yeah," Aria smiled and Ali grinned.

"I have a good feeling about you Aria," Alison said with a knowing smile, "I know we'll be the best of friends."

"I'd like that," Aria smiled as Jason's mother pulled into Noel's driveway.

Half the school was already in the yard, chasing each other around in their bathing suites. Aria smiled as Jason carried both of our bags for them around back and put them by the pool. Alison ran off immediately to meet up with her friends, Hanna and Spencer who were already sitting in chairs by the pool. Noel was smiling as he walked down his back porch steps with a football in hand.

"Jason!" He hollered with a 'big man on campus' attitude, "Catch."

Jason laughed as he caught it, and then Noel's friends Ben, and Sean ran out behind him and the four of them headed out to the side yard to play catch. Then, as suddenly as they ran off, Aria was all alone, and was feeling fairly out of place. Everyone was invited to Noel's party, that was everyone except the kids that hadn't shown up on his radar yet – like her best friend Emily.

"Aria," Alison called, "Come over here!"

"Hey," Aria said as she walked over and took a seat next to Spencer.

"Aria is going to be hanging out with us from now on," Alison announced and suddenly Spencer and Hanna got much more enthusiastic about Aria's appearance.

"You're dating Jason right?" Hanna smiled.

"You're in homeroom with me right?" Spencer asked.

**** Present Day ** **

Ezra wasn't quite sure what he was doing, and why he was where he was. He was standing in Jason DiLaurentis' house waiting for all of the guys to get there so that they could head over to this kid Noel's party. Sean was leaning against the opposite wall, and Toby was sitting in Jason's desk chair. Ezra took a deep breath as he took a seat on the foot of Jason's bed. Jason was throwing his bathing suit and a towel into a backpack.

"Seriously?" Toby asked, "You couldn't have packed before, like everyone else?"

"No, he's the golden boy, he's got to do everything special," Ben joked as he walked into the room, a huge backpack on his back, "And don't you little campers worry, I've got the goods."

"The goods?" Ezra was confused.

"The beer," Ben filled him in, motioning back towards his bag.

"I'm guessing Noel's parents won't be at the party?" Ezra asked.

"They haven't been since we were fifteen," Jason told him, "Don't worry – it stays pretty tame though. It is Rosewood, so in order for the party to fly under the radar we have to keep it to a dull circus."

"Where're the girls?" Ben asked, "I checked in Ali's room and no one was there."

"They're getting ready at Emily's," Jason said and they all nodded.

Ezra took a deep breath, he only had a very vague idea of who Noel was even. All he knew was that he had been brought into the 'in' group which meant that it didn't matter that he couldn't even pick the host of this party out of a crowd, it just mattered that Alison approved of his existence and decided to grace him with acceptance into her inner circle. Whatever that meant, all he cared about was being close to Aria. But of course, didn't matter how close he was to her because she was with Jason, the guy the whole school wanted to build a monument to. He wanted to hate Jason, but he couldn't – there wasn't much to hate.

"So we're meeting them there?" Toby asked and Jason nodded as he zipped up his bag.

"So is Ian going to be there?" Ben smirked.

"What does it matter if he is or not?" Jason asked and Ben shrugged.

"It's just kind of funny," Ben replied, "The girl tries to run the whole show and yet the one guy she decides she likes she can't have."

"Who says that's a coincidence?" Sean asked.

"Hey, I know she can be a little more than nuts sometimes," Jason prefaced, "But she is my sister."

"Ian's bad news anyways," Toby said, "He's always chasing around Melissa like she's catnip or something."

"Who's Melissa?" Ezra asked as he followed the troupe out of Jason's room and towards the DiLaurentis' front door.

"Spencer's sister," Toby filled him in as they went down the stairs and out to Jason's car.

They all piled into the car, Toby volunteering to sit next to Ezra. Something told him that Ezra would be able to find a friend in Toby, not this weird group affiliation, but perhaps a true friend in Toby, and maybe Jason as well – though that was deemed much more complicated. Seeing as he had fallen in love, at first sight, with Jason's girlfriend, Ezra had the feeling that he and Jason being friends wouldn't be the best of plans.

When they got the party, Ezra was shocked at just how well Rosewood could recreate a mock nineties movie pool party with a few more modern twists. There were people everywhere, and a sea of red solo cups and girls running around and playing around in bikinis. There was a group of guys tossing a football around, a Frisbee was whipping around in the air, and the music was merely background to the blaring of shrieks and chatter of the party goers. Luckily it seemed that Noel's house was relatively secluded from everything and anything else.

"You see the girls?" Toby asked Ezra as they piled out of the car.

"They're by the pool," Jason filled us in as he checked his phone.

"Shall we change?" Ezra asked and Jason nodded.

"I have to go deliver these to Noel," Ben said, motioning to his bag, "I'll see you guys by the pool?"

"Yeah," Jason said as he led the rest of us into Noel's house to change.

They left our stuff in Noel's living room and then headed out to the pool in just t-shirts and their trunks. Aria, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily were sitting on the edge of the pool with their feet in, while Alison was attempting to get the attention of a guy that looked like he had absolutely no interest in her, which seemed to be a new and completely unheard of process for her. He seemed much more concerned with where the football he was throwing was going than whatever she was trying to tell him.

Aria, on the other hand, was the true beauty of the party, and Ezra swallowed hard as he caught sight of her. She looked like a swimsuit model, just relaxing on the pool side, and he looked up at the sky for a split second actually wondering how he had managed to get himself into this sort of situation. He had always been excruciatingly careful when it came to girls, and yet here was this beautiful girl that was exactly what he always envisioned, but she belonged to Jason, and something told him Alison would be all to willing to exile him if she had any idea of what was going on.

"Shed your shirts, gentleman," Ben said, rather patriotically, "It's pool time."

"Calm down, swim boy," Jason teased him as they all pealed their shirts off – Jason threw his right into Aria's lap – alerting the girls that they were there.

"There you guys are," Spencer said, looking around at all of them as they each in turn jumped into the pool.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" Aria teased Jason.

She was trying her absolute best to act as if nothing was wrong. Ezra was new, Aria hadn't even been introduced to anyone new in years, there was bound to be some curiosity in her about a cute boy arriving from New York. And, no matter how good he looked standing in the pool, half naked, she would have to advert her gaze and enjoy her boyfriend. Her dependable, loving, gorgeous boyfriend: Jason.

"Treasure it," Jason teased, "Frame it up on our wall when we get a house of our own."

"I am sixteen years old, Jason," Aria seemed surprised with the idea, as she promptly threw the shirt into the water.

"You act like you don't already know you two're going to end up together," Hanna joked as Sean playfully splashed at her legs.

"That wasn't nice," Jason chuckled as he threw his shirt out of the pool and onto a lawn chair behind the girls.

Then he hopped out of the water, and Aria shrieked as he circled back behind her.

"Jason, I swear…"

"What?" He asked innocently as he picked her up bridal style and stood on the edge of the pool.

"You're coming in with me," She said, staring straight into his eyes in a way that made Ezra have to look away.

"I had no intentions of not going in with you," He said as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Ok."

"You ready?"

"OK." Aria repeated in a 'just do it' tone.

Jason laughed, kissed her forehead, and jumped right into the pool. As he and Aria resurfaced there was a distinct battle cry.

"POOL!" Noel was yelling as everyone just started jumping in from everywhere around the pool, including Hanna as Sean pulled her in by her legs.

Aria clung to Jason, with more people in the area, she was hoping that she would be able to lose sight of Ezra. She didn't have much luck with that though, because as more and more people filled the pool their group got into a smaller and smaller space, so much so that Aria was in Jason's arms, Ezra was right up against her. It couldn't have been comfortable for anyone involved, because Ezra very soon got out of the pool.

"I'm going to go get a drink, does anyone else want anything?" He asked, drying off quickly so that he could go into the house without dripping everywhere.

"I'll come with you," Toby offered, hopping out and toweling dry as quickly as was possible.

"I'll just have a bottle of water, if you wouldn't mind grabbing one," Jason said and Ezra nodded.

"We could all probably do with waters," Hanna said, and Spencer nodded.

"It's so hot out today.."

"Why don't we just bring one of the coolers down?" Toby suggested and they headed up to the deck to get one.

"Sounds like a plan," Ezra replied, wiping a drop of water off his forehead.

"Dude, whatever else you're thinking," Toby told him, "Stop. Jason and Aria, they're a good couple. He treats her like a princess and…They're good together, Ezra."

"Yeah," Ezra took a deep breath, "I wasn't gonna."

"We can talk about it later if you want," Toby told him as they each took a side of the cooler, "I'm always up for talking."

"Thanks," Ezra said, and Toby nodded, "I might take you up on that."

"No problem," He replied as they carried it down the steps to the poolside – just as their friends all climbed out of the pool.

"Break out the beer!" Noel called out as Toby opened the cooler, and beers were passed out to the entire party.

Ezra took one, and headed off to the side. He hoped no one else had picked up on what Toby had, but there really was nothing he could do about it now, except sit back, relax and have a cold one. Jason didn't seem to be that upset with him, so there must not have been too much toe stepping, either that or Jason was confident enough with his relationship that it didn't even show up on his radar. It would only make sense for it not to. He'd had the girl for five years, why would he ever think she'd leave him now? The idea of them together that long started to make Ezra's blood boil, how dare Jason have Aria that long? It made him sick, she belonged with him.

Ezra added his third beer can to the pile and picked up another one. He had never been much of a drinker, and he could feel it starting to affect him as he tried to get up. But, he didn't really care because at this point, the pain he felt watching Aria lying on her lawn chair with Jason was starting to fade. Though he wasn't sure whether or not that had to do with the alcohol, or the fact that Jason got up and was walking away from Aria. Ezra wasn't sure where he was going, but he was just glad that Jason was leaving, heading up towards the house.

"Hi, Aria."

"You don't drink often, do you," Aria watched Ezra, slightly amused as he sat down in the chair beside hers.

"No, not really," He smiled, and Aria couldn't help but smile back, "Where's Jason?"

The rest of the party had moved to the house, so they were alone.

"He went into the house," Aria said, shifting a little bit in her seat, "Alison's gotten herself in trouble again, He went in to get her."

"Ali gets herself in trouble often?"

"When Ian's involved."

"Gotcha," Ezra nodded, taking another sip of his beer.

Aria smiled, even drunk he was the cutest thing she had ever laid eyes on.

"We'll all probably go soon," Aria told him, "If the party goes too late the neighbor's will call the cops."

"Right, I'm going to need a ride home."

"Aren't you staying at Jason's with everyone else?"

"Are you staying at Jason's?"

"No, Emily's," Aria told him, "Sorry guys stay at Jason and Ali's and girls spend the night at Em's."

"Shame," He said, starting to peel the label on his beer, "I like you."

"I like you too, you're a good guy," Aria chuckled, and Ezra looked over at her, making sure to make eye contact – sobering up almost completely for a minute that sent a rush through Aria.

"No," He said, his voice dead serious, "I like you, Aria. And I get that you're with… Jason. But, I - adore you. The second I saw you I was…"

"Ezra, you're drunk," Aria reminded him though it pained her, as she saw Jason walking down the steps with Ali and the group close behind them.

"So Em's gonna drive Ali's car to Emily's house," Jason said, stone cold sober, he hadn't even had one drink all night, "And I'll drive back to my place."

"We need to get out of here," Ali was pissed about something, but neither Aria or Ezra could think to care.

Aria's mind was spinning about what Ezra had just said, and Ezra's mind was just scrambled by everything. Being in a new place, a house he had never been to before, the amount of alcohol he had in his system, and all of the feelings he was wrestling down for Aria. He took a deep breath as he got up, just in time to see Jason kissing Aria goodnight, and to puke - everywhere.


	3. You Can't Do That

A/N: Hey guys! I just wanted to thank you guys all for all the great reviews! And yeah, I know this is a somewhat weird concept, but I figured that would be what would make it a little different from all the other millions of Aria/Ezra fanfictions out there… don't worry I'm an Ezria shipper to the core… Read. Enjoy. Review. : )

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Three:

**** Five Years Ago ****

"Oh my God," Alison said as Emily and Aria dropped their sleeping bags in Spencer's living room.

"What?" Hanna asked, from over in the kitchen where she was throwing popcorn into the microwave.

"This is Emily and Aria's first of our sleepovers," Ali announced and Spencer rolled her eyes.

"It's really not that intense," Spencer said, "We eat crap, watch a movie, then stay up late talking about boys. How is this a new concept to any type of girl ever?"

"Not really," Alison admitted, though grudgingly.

Alison really seemed like a dangerous personality, and Emily and Aria exchanged glances. They were used to her acting this way at school, but was it really possible to be that way all the time? Wouldn't it drive her nuts and eventually just be too much? Alison walked proud and confidently out the back door, and Spencer ran after her – the girls assumed simply because it was her house.

"Popcorn?" Hanna asked as she came over with the bag, "Don't worry about her, guys. She really does mean well – sometimes, well most of the time.

Then all of a sudden, there were cracking eggs on the sliding door and Alison and Spencer were shrieking. They opened the door and ran inside, but didn't manage to shut the door before Jason, and a few of his friends: Sean, Toby, and Ben ran in with rolls of toilet paper in hand. They started pelting them at the girls, and draped some of the couches.

"Boys!" Alison said angrily as her brother wrapped Aria up like a mummy with the toilet paper.

"Hi Aria," Jason gave her a crooked smile, not paying attention to his sister as he gave Aria a kiss on her cheek, "Having a nice night?"

"I was actually," She chuckled as he finished up and Ben cracked an egg over Alison's hair.

This managed to get Ali to scream out of frustration, she wasn't used to the boys not listening to her, and Aria got the feeling that she wasn't about to let herself get used to such a thing. The scream caused lights to go on up the stairs and the boys froze in their tracks as Spencer's father came running down the stairs.

"Hello, Gentlemen," He said, looking around the room and recognizing the situation pretty quickly without having to ask a single question.

"Hey, Mr. Hastings," Jason switched on his usual charm as he stepped away from a partially mummified.

"Jason," Mr. Hastings looked surprised, if not completely thrown off guard, "Ben, Sean, and Toby. Where do your parents think you are?"

"Jason's house, sir," Toby was holding a roll of toilet paper down by his side.

"Ah, of course," He replied, like the fact that the DiLaurentis parents were supposed to be watching them explained everything, "Well boys, what are you standing around for? I want this place spotless. Girls, see to it that they finish cleaning up and leave? Alison, why don't you go grab a shower? You know where the towels are…"

"You've got it, Mr. Hastings," Alison smiled knowingly and Mr. Hastings exhaled noisily.

"Thank-you, Alison," He mumbled, then headed back upstairs, calling over his shoulder, "I'm coming down in an hour, if the boys are still here all of your parents are being called."

"Yes Sir, Mr. Hastings!" Jason said as Spencer went and got them trash bags and they started to clean up.

"Don't forget the egg on the window," Alison said, departing for the shower like a little princess.

Hanna fetched Sean paper towels and Windex for the window, and the rest of the girls started to help the boys pick up.

"Spencer, why does your dad hate me?" Jason asked seriously as he held the bag open for Sean to drop the eggy paper towels in.

"He senses your inherit grossness?" Spencer offered, "I honestly have no idea, Jason. He's dad, he does that sometimes."

"It's creepy," Ben said as he tossed some toilet paper into Jason's trash bag.

"What's creepy is cracking eggs on people's heads," Hanna rolled her eyes at him.

"No, that's just epic," Sean gave him a high five.

"Boys are so stupid," Emily said, looking right at Ben, then turned to Aria, "I don't know how you put up with it."

"But he's so cute," Aria teased and Jason smiled as the rest of them laughed.

**** Present Day ** **

"Here you go, buddy," Jason said as he handed Ezra a cool glass of water.

Jason had dropped Ben and Sean off at their respective homes, and was now sitting in his kitchen with a still heavily intoxicated Ezra and Toby. Toby helped himself to some orange juice out of the fridge while Jason was attempting to help Ezra while Toby went from his orange juice to fix three bowls of cereal.

"Why're you so nice to me?" Ezra asked Jason.

It would be easier for him if Jason was some big dumb jock-dick, but he was nice. Jason was a decent guy, he had a sphyco sister, but that wasn't really something that he could help. Ezra had been reeling about the guy since he had arrived, and all he had wanted to do was to hate Jason – but he couldn't. His only offence was having Aria, and Ezra just couldn't see hating him for it. It would be so much easier if Jason treated her like crap, or was somehow a terrible person – but there he was taking care of him, and being, plainly, a good friend to a guy he'd known three days.

"Honestly?" Jason asked as Toby put the cereal in front of each of them, "Because you're a friend, even if we haven't been all that close, or you haven't been here all that long – you've made quick friends with Aria, and by proxy all of us. Eventually, I'll be hiding your drunk ass at my house because you're by friend. Right now, I'm hiding you and helping you because you're Aria's friend – and frankly she'd kick my ass if I didn't."

"You've seriously underestimated the power Aria has over Jason here," Toby chuckled as he scooped cereal into his mouth.

"Hey, she's my best friend," Jason replied, then went a little strange, like he was thinking about something, "If nothing else, she's my best friend."

"Hey, remember that time we crashed their sleepover?" Toby chuckled and Ezra's ears perked up.

"Oh, yeah," Jason said, "That was epic."

"What happened?" Ezra asked, sometimes he really hated that he hadn't been in the group as long as the rest of them.

"In like Eighth grade, the girls were having a sleepover over at Spencer's next door," Jason filled him in.

"So Sean, Ben, and the two of us go over with a bunch of toilet paper, and like a dozen eggs," Toby continued.

"Mr. Hastings totally busted us-"

"Mr. Hastings is probably the scariest man alive."

"We had to clean it up, but he was actually pretty cool about it," Jason said, "He didn't even call anyone's parents."

"We could have been so screwed," Toby replied.

"Well it wasn't like he came in to us making out with the girls," Jason pointed out, "He came into me mummifying Aria, Ben cracking an egg over Alison's head, and You and Sean t.p.-ing his living room."

"That's true," Toby chuckled, "How could I have possibly forgotten the egg in Ali's hair."

"I don't know," Jason chuckled, "It was pretty priceless."

"This is something I'm very I missed," Ezra was laughing just at the thought of the scene Mr. Hastings must have walked in on.

"We haven't crashed a sleepover since," Jason admitted.

"We should do it," Toby said and Jason looked at him as if he had about six heads.

"Their at Emily's," Jason reminded him, "Do you want to answer to Sergeant Fields?"

"I don't think he's a sergeant," Toby voiced, though was ignored.

"Emily's dad's in the army?" Ezra was kind of surprised that an army man would let his daughter date what he'd seen in Ben.

"Yeah," Toby said, "You should see Ben around him. He completely changes – I'm pretty sure Mr. Fields thinks he has a new recruit in a couple years. But besides that, isn't he deployed right now?"

"Oh, Mrs. Fields is a nice target."

"As long as we're playful we'll just get a little reprimand," Toby pointed out and Jason seemed to be considering it.

"That's if she wakes up," Jason said.

"Just don't make 'em scream," Ezra said as he dug into his cereal.

"Sober up," Jason said, going to make him some coffee, "Then we'll sneak over."

"Sounds good," Ezra said through a mouthful of cereal.

Meanwhile, the Field's living room was draped all over with sleeping bags. Alison's was strewn over the couch while Emily and Spencer were sharing an air mattress on the floor nearby. Hanna and Aria had "borrowed" the mattress off Emily's bed and were sitting on that while they recouped from the party and talked.

"So that was a successful party," Alison announced as she climbed into her sleeping bag.

"How so?" Spencer asked, "You were rejected by Ian, once again."

"Yes, but new boy Ezra proved to be a very cute drunk," Alison said, "And if Ian won't have me, what's better than to make him jealous with the new kid? He's pissed already with all the girls who're abandoning ship."

"What?" Aria was confused, and her mind was reeling.

This was not good news. Not only was Alison about to claim Ezra for herself, it wasn't even because she liked him. She would just be using him – Aria could feel her blood beginning to boil. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to do about her feelings for Ezra, or his apparent feelings for her, if anything but she knew that no good could come from Ali messing with him.

"I'm going to get Ezra, so that Ian will pay more attention to me," Alison said simply, shrugging as if it were that simple, "Ian's so used to all the girls fawning all over him, but since Ezra's here, from New York, and let's face it, hotter than hell – Ian's been getting fewer and fewer girls chasing him around. So – put out the claim girls. Ezra's mine – and honestly, that will only make him a little more desirable to the girl population, which will only provoke Ian more."

"Wow," Spencer said, more in awe of the plan than either approving or disapproving.

"You can't do that, Ali," It was out of Aria's mouth before she could even process it in her own thought process.

"Who says I can't?" Alison replied defensively, "What're you gonna do about it? And what do you care? Unless you've developed feelings for him, but c'mon you're Jason. That would so not be cool. Why the hell would you even be giving Ezra a once over? I get that he might be your friend – but he's a big boy he'll be fine."

"I can't believe you're gonna do this," Aria stood up, folding her arms across her chest.

"Yeah, c'mon Ali," Hanna jumped in, "Ezra hasn't done anything. You shouldn't mess with him like that."

"So? He'll get over it," Alison said, "He didn't really think that he'd be able to just walk into the most exclusive clique in Rosewood with that arrogant attitude, did he?"

"This is low, Ali," Aria said, starting to walk out of the room, "Even for you."

"Aria," Hanna went to follow her.

"Leave her, Hanna," Ali said without even batting an eyelash, "She'll come back when she can realize that Ezra has to pay his dues to be in the group – just like everyone else. He'll get over it eventually/"

Aria walked right outside and sat by the Fields' flower garden. She stared at the flowers until her eyes adjusted to the darkness, and see could see the moonlight making shadows across their surfaces. She wasn't all that afraid for Ezra, he had no interest in Alison, and had asked her countless times just in the past couple days why she put up with her. What upset her was that Ezra very clearly only wanted to be in the group so that he could hang out with her, he was her friend. And he was going to be hurt, either way, just for wanting to be her friend – or rather wanting to be more than friends.

Aria still hadn't finished processing what he had said at the party, about liking her like that. She had been half hoping that her slightly off-setting feelings were one-way, but she guessed that she had known the whole time that he felt the same as she did. Ezra wasn't the problem, she knew exactly how she felt about him, the thing that was holding her up was how she felt about Jason. The strength and pace of her feelings for Ezra brought into question just about everything she knew about her relationship with Jason.

If she felt nothing at all for Jason, then this would be an easy decision – made slightly more difficult by Alison and her sphere of influence. Aria loved Jason, she always had – the problem was more the idea that she had been with Jason just about all of her dating life. Had she just been blissfully unaware that feelings like she had for Ezra existed in the world, or if her feelings for Ezra were something quick that were going to pass. Either way, the last thing she wanted to do was to hurt either of them. Or let Alison hurt, or try to hurt either of them. At the very least Ezra would be hurt when he found out what Alison was planning.

"Hey, what're you doing out here?" Aria turned around to see Jason, Ezra, and Toby sneaking around the bushes, "Isn't the party inside, sweetheart?"

"Just, needed some air," Aria replied, and Jason nodded.

"Alison?" Jason asked and Aria nodded.

"Sometimes she's just way out of line," Aria said, as she realized Toby was carrying a pillow case, "What've you got, Toby?"

"Silly string, and some toilet paper," He told her and Aria chuckled.

"Don't let me stop you, go ahead in," Aria smiled weakly, "They'll love that. Where're Ben and Sean?"

"They had a curfew," Jason said, and Aria nodded, "You sure?"

"Yeah," Aria said, "They're all awake."

"Ok," Jason said, "Hey Ezra, why don't you stay with Aria? That way you can play look out."

"What?" Ezra said, and Aria made a move to say something – leaving Ezra with her would not be one of Jason's best plans.

"That's Emily's mom's room," Jason said, pointing to the window on the second floor, "If a light turns on, or there's any movement, come in and get us, quick."

"Ok," Ezra took a seat next to Aria on the garden bench.

"Ugh," Aria said, "This is when I hate cliques."

"I thought you said Alison wasn't that bad?" Ezra gave her a knowing 'I told you so' smirk.

"She's out of control."

"I'm sorry, about earlier," Ezra felt he had to just say it, then he would feel less awkward.

"It's fine," Aria said, "I can see you've sobered up."

"Yes, your boyfriend is king of sobering people up."

"What'd he do?"

"Cereal, coffee, and a glass of water," He replied and Aria nodded, slightly relieved, "You've got a really nice guy there."

"Is that sarcastic?" Aria was genuinely confused.

"No," said Ezra as Jason and Toby came running out of the house.

"C'mon, Ez," Jason called as they ran across the backyard – and Ezra ran with them, "Good night, Beautiful, Sweet dreams! I'll text you in the morning, love you!"


	4. We Should

A/N: So, as you could all imagine… it's about to get complicated, and shit may be going down very soon. Some Ezria! Yay!

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Four:

**** Five Years Ago ** **

Jason held Aria's hand as they walked through the halls of the middle school as girls stood by the lockers and whispered. Aria felt uncomfortable, she went to take her hand out his – but he held on tighter. He gave her a weirded out look as he stopped them just by her locker. They had to be in homeroom shortly, but he was more than willing to be late if it meant figuring out what was up with her.

"What's wrong."

"Nothing," Aria said, "Those girls were just-"

"Don't pay attention to them, I don't," He replied, smiling sweetly down at her as Aria watched a girl walk by, and stare right at Jason.

"Let us know when you want a real girl, Jasey," A girl said and Aria just looked at him.

"Helena, this, is what a real girl looks like," Jason said, pointing to Aria, "See how there's not makeup caked on like she's a drag queen?"

"Helena," Ali said with a fake smile as she walked over, clear she was coming to the rescue, "Aren't you going to be late for the freak show?"

Aria smirked a little bit as Helena stalked off and Ali came over and linked arms with her. Emily, Hanna, and Spencer crowded together with them as the rest of the girls who had been eyeing Jason, and giving Aria dirty looks couldn't manage to look away.

"Seriously?" Hanna asked, "Do you guys have no shame?"

"Do you guys have a problem with our friend?" Spencer asked, wielding her History book rather menacingly.

"Thanks guys." Aria smiled a little bit, and Jason chuckled.

"I'll leave you in the girls' very capable hands," Jason smiled as he leaned in and kissed her cheek just before heading off to homeroom.

"Bye, Jason," Alison said with her usual, controlling attitude.

"Wait for me after school?" Jason asked of Aria and she nodded.

Aria went through her whole day just waiting until the final bell when she would meet Jason by her locker. Suddenly all the whispers and jokes the other kids were making didn't really bother her all that much. They were really bothering Alison, who felt it was her sisterly, or friend duty to tell off anyone that was saying absolutely anything about them. At the end of the day, Alison brought Emily, Spencer, and Hanna to meet Spencer's mom while Aria went to her locker to meet Jason.

"We're going to miss the bus," Aria pointed out and Jason smirked.

"That was kind of my plan," He admitted, taking her hand as they headed out the door of the school and started walking home, "This way I can walk you home."

"Jason," Aria said and he gave her his attention, "You're my best friend.—Don't tell Emily."

"I think that's an important thing to remember," He replied, taking his hand away from her, "No matter what, we're best friends – over anything else."

"Agreed," Aria shook his hand on it.

**** Present Day ** **

"Where're you headed?" Ezra asked as he walked up next to Aria leaving school late.

"Walking home," She replied, "Jason has practice after school, and I had to makeup a test. Alison and the girls went to the mall."

"The mall?" Without you?" Ezra chuckled, "So that makeup test saved you, huh? Can't imagine shopping with them."

"Hanna, Emily, and Spencer are amazing," Aria said, "Alison – "

"You're still angry with her?" Ezra asked and Aria rolled her eyes.

"If you only knew…"

"Fill me in then," He replied with his usual adorable smile, "Let me walk you home, at least."

"Fine, I could use the company," Aria said and Ezra smiled, the smile only Aria could get out of him.

Aria lied to herself, and pretended she wasn't just as excited to spend time with Ezra as he was with her. It scared her too much to think about it, because she couldn't remember ever feeling the same about spending time with Jason. She was always happy to see him, to be with him – but there was never the giddiness, the pure fire that she had for Ezra. That was enough, she shoved the feelings down. Jason was hers, and he was her best friend – even if she was in love with Ezra, Jason was her best friend and had been everything to her too long. She would never hurt him like that.

"So how'd your test go?" Ezra asked, adjusting his bag on his shoulder as they walked down the street.

"I didn't really have a test – I lied, to get out of the mall," Aria said, and Ezra's face was taken over with surprise.

"Wow, you must be really mad," Ezra chuckled, "Seriously, what'd she do?"

"Nothing, she's just being Alison," Aria replied as they turned onto the street her's was off of.

"Well that's nice and nondescript," Ezra teased as they turned onto Aria's street.

"So what do you have to do this afternoon?" Aria asked him, and he shrugged.

"Not much, homework," He replied as they stopped outside Aria's house.

"Why don't you come in, we can do homework together," Aria offered, and Ezra raised his eyebrows.

"That doesn't sound like the best idea," He replied, looking around at the neighbor's houses.

"C'mon," Aria said, "Don't be a wuss."

"I'm only thinking about you," Ezra said, wondering if Aria knew just how much, but he looked over at the DiLaurentis' house.

"Ali's at the mall," Aria replied as she led him into the house.

"I was thinking Jason," He replied as Aria dropped her bag on the couch, and Ezra followed her lead.

"Jason?" Aria asked, "Jason knows we're friends. And he didn't hear what you said the other night. He's fine with us being friends. I love him, because believe me, if I didn't this would all be a lot easier a lot quicker."

"Seriously?" Ezra was a little surprised, and a little disheartened – he wished he had Jason on his toes at least, "Why did you automatically think I was talking about Alison? What do I care about her?"

"No, it's the reason I'm mad at her," Aria said and Ezra cocked his head, waiting for her to continue as she ignored the butterflies he had just created in her stomach, "I really shouldn't tell you this – and you have to swear not to let on that you know."

"Ok?" Ezra asked.

"Seriously, she will burn me at the stake, and completely ruin me."

"What's the point of having a friend you're terrified of?"

"Promise me?"

"I promise you, Aria," Ezra replied charmingly – and Aria couldn't help but smile a little bit, just the way he said it.

"Ok," Aria said, then said very quickly, "Alison's sent out a claim on you, to all the girls in school to stay away because she wants you. Except she doesn't even really want you, she's just jumping on the bandwagon of the entire school population to piss Ian off and use you to make him jealous."

"What?" Ezra was shocked, "That's why you're so mad at her? Is that why she showed up to Chem and stole your seat today?"

"That would be why," Aria replied.

"Why would she do this?"

"Well, logically – it makes sense," Aria said, "A lot of girls at school are absolutely in love with you, and they used to be all over Ian. Alison wants Ian, and he's pissed off you're here, so if she starts dating you…"

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I care about you, Ezra," Aria replied, "I don't want to see you hurt – ever."

Ironic, Ezra thought.

"Well I'd never be with her anyways," Ezra looked as if the mere idea would make him sick, which Aria took satisfaction in, "There's only one girl I want, and I can't have her. Simple as that. I'm not going to get mixed up in some huge high school game."

"You're a really good guy, Ezra."

"But not good enough," He smiled sheepishly and Aria gave a faint smile.

"We should start our homework."

"Ok," He replied, "Shall we do the English assignment?"

"Nevermind, I don't want to do homework," Aria pouted and Ezra raised an eyebrow.

"Then what would you like to do?" He asked.

Aria couldn't let herself say what she wanted, she wanted Ezra. She wanted to just forget all about Jason and run off into the world with Ezra.

"Do you like cookies?"

"I do."

"Well let's make some," Aria said, promptly leading him into the kitchen.

Aria took out the mixing bowl, and handed it to Ezra who put it on the table. It was the same for the flower, the eggs, the sugar, and the chocolate chips. He smiled as she stepped down from the chair she had been stepping on in order to reach it all, and Ezra chuckled as he went to preheat the oven.

"What's so funny?" Aria asked and he shrugged.

"You're short," He laughed and she hit his arm as she passed on the way to grab a spoon.

"You're an ass," Aria teased as she handed him the spoon.

"I never said I wasn't," He smirked as she opened up the flower and grabbed the recipe book.

Ezra smiled mischievously as he grabbed a measuring cup and went over to the flower. Aria was just returning with the recipe book, and he chuckled as he threw a little flower at her, low by her hip.

"Ezra!" Aria was shocked as she put the book down.

He just smiled, and she couldn't help but forgive him immediately. Any actual anger was gone before she even knew it was there, and she reached into the flower and threw some up at his face.

"Ow," He said, holding his eyes closed as he felt his way over to the sink, "Eyes."

"Jeans," Aria replied as she put all the ingredients into the bowl, and stuck the spoon in, "Stir."

"I'm coming," Ezra said as he wiped his face clean and came over to stir for her.

Within minutes it was all mixed, and Aria had put back most of the supplies.

"You know? Do we have to really bake this?" He asked and Aria gave him a weird look.

"What else would we do with the dough?"

Within seconds Ezra had turned and smeared down the front of her nose. She laughed as she put her hand into the bowl and stuck a generous amount and smeared it diagonally right across from Ezra's temple to his opposing cheek. From there, within minutes, they were both completely covered from head to foot and were sitting against the cabinets together on the floor.

"Well that was a lot funner," Aria chuckled, the whole kitchen was as covered as they were.

"I told you," Ezra smiled, rolling his head over to look into her eyes.

Suddenly they seemed to be getting closer and closer, like magnets were imbedded in their chins. Their eyes were locked, and Aria didn't think she could have looked away even if she wanted to. Ezra knew this was his chance, he was going to be able to get a taste of Aria, what it would be like if she were his. If she were his, Jason's face popped right into his head, and he stopped. He froze, like a deer in the headlights and it broke his heart.

"We should clean up."

"We should," Aria agreed, but didn't sound convinced, then she seemed to snap out of it.

Aria went to ask Mike if Ezra could borrow a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He gave her things for Ezra that their grandmother had given him that were much too large. Mike said that Ezra could just keep them, and Aria smiled. Once they had both changed and cleaned up, Aria threw their clothes into the washing machine and then headed back to the living room.

"Homework time?" Ezra asked adorably as she walked into the room.

"Yeah," Aria said, looking at the clock, Jason would be there to pick her up for a date in about an hour, "Would you mind going home around five?"

"I would be seriously offended if you expected me to stay any longer," He teased, smiling as he took his book out of his bag and put it on the coffee table.

"Why're you so nice to me?" Aria asked as she sat down across the coffee table from him, "You should hate me. You do, don't you? I don't think I could stand it if you hated me."

"Aria, I could never hate you," He said simply, "You've done nothing wrong."

"Well I'm friends with Alison."

"Well I don't think you had much choice in the matter," He replied, then took a deep breath, "Homework time."

"So what are we supposed to be reading?" Aria asked and he flipped through the pages.

"We are finishing off A Tale of Two Cities," Ezra said as he got to the page number he had written down, "We're supposed to read the last section."

"I hate this book," Aria said fifteen minutes later, when they were almost done reading it to themselves.

"Here," Ezra said, "I've only got a few pages left. I'll read the rest to you."

"Ok," Aria said, slipping her book into her bag.

Immediately Aria's mind was transported to revolutionary France. More specifically a dust filled street with a Jeering crowd and a line lead up for slaughter at the guillotine. Sydney in the line, posing as the love of his life's husband – to save her the agony of losing him by sacrificing himself, because he loved her that much. She would never be his, and never had been – but he was so in love with her he was willing to die for a sleeze ball husband that didn't even really love her as much as he did.

"'…I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. I see her, an old woman, weeping for me on the anniversary of this day. I see her and her husband, their course done, lying side by side in their last earthly bed, and I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other's soul, than I was in the souls of both…'" Ezra read and Aria was outraged, "'…It is a It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is afar, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."

"So Sydney just dies?" Aria was outraged.

"Yup," Byron said as he walked into the room, "Oh, hello. I'm Byron Montgomery, Aria's dad."

"Nice to meet you," Ezra said nervously as he hopped up to shake his hand.

"A Tale of Two Cities," Byron said approvingly.

"We're reading it for English," Aria said and he nodded, then she turned to Ezra, "Dad's an English Professor at Hollis."

"Really," Ezra looked impressed.

"You like English?"

"I was planning on majoring in it next year," Ezra said and Byron nodded.

"So wait, wait, wait," Aria said, "That girl just let the purest, greatest guy in the world die for her husband?"

"He tricked her," Ezra pointed out.

"But that's not ok."

"The whole world wanted her with Darnay," Byron said, "What chance did Sydney have?"

Ezra nodded, he couldn't help but see the parallel that could be drawn between the situations. Darnay and Carton were friendly, and yet Darnay had the girl, and Carton would never. Even if what came across, as Sydney feeling much stronger and purer love for the girl was true, they lived in a world where Darnay got the girl – no matter how much Sydney loved her. He had just moved into a world where Jason had the girl, no matter how much he loved Aria as well.

"I haven't seen you around yet," Byron smiled at Ezra, "Are you a new friend?"

"He's been around a little while," Aria said, "He walked me home from school – Jason had practice."

"Right," Byron said, "Would you like to stay for dinner, Ezra? I'd love to talk to you about School, literature…"

"That sounds great," Ezra said and Aria panicked.

"He can't stay tonight, dad," Aria said, looking at the clock and panicking more.

She had been so intent on the story, and relaxed by Ezra's voice that she had completely forgoteen to keep track of the time. Jason would be there any minute to pick her up for dinner.

"Why not?" Byron was confused.

"Yeah, why not?" Ezra asked.

"I have a date with Jason," Aria said as Ezra's phone went off in his pocket.

He checked the text message, it was from Toby.

_Hey man, a few of us are hanging out over at Spencer's you're welcome to come by if you want ~Toby. _

"And I have just been summoned over to Spencer's," Ezra said, putting his phone into his pocket as Jason walked into the living room.

"Sorry I'm a little late, sweetheart," Jason smiled at Byron as he went up and kissed Aria's cheek from behind, "Oh, Hey Ez –man."

"Hey, Jason."

"Ezra was just over doing some homework," Aria filled him in.

"Sweet," Jason said, "You going over to the Hastings'?"

"I might," Ezra said, "I was thinking about it, but my brother's in town for the week. His school has it off – I should just go home."

"Alright, man," Jason said, and Ezra exited stage right, and out the front door to head home.

"Don't have her back too late, Jason," Byron said as he headed back towards the kitchen.

"Do I ever?" Jason joked back as he took Aria's hand.

"You ready?" He asked and Aria nodded.

This was her boyfriend, not the amazing man who just read her dickens and one of the most beautiful love stories she had ever heard. That was Ezra, her friend. This was Jason, her boyfriend who brought her flowers, brought her out to nice dinners, treated her outrageously well, and protected her from whatever he could. She had the real prince charming, complete with golden locks and amazing eyes – but why couldn't she stop thinking about Ezra's?


	5. We Can't

A/N: So, here we go… Sorry for the wait : / as always… read and enjoy!

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Five:

****Three Years Ago ** **

Aria looked around at the dance. Dances weren't exactly her foray, but Jason had asked her to go with him – and Alison had pretty much made it so that everyone of them was going, no matter what they wanted. Aria was coming to realize that being friends with Alison was going to be an exercise in frustration. She just hoped she would get used to her soon, it make it so much easier for her once she was better at dealing with Jason's sister.

"Hello, beautiful," Jason smiled as he smiled, "That dress looks amazing."

"Everyone scrunch in for pictures," Mrs. Hastings said from the line of moms standing by the Hastings' pool.

It was the Halloween dance at the High School, and they were all over at Spencer's house taking pictures. Jason and his friends were all freshmen. So, after a lot of Alison's meddling, Ben was taking Emily, and Sean was taking Hanna. Toby had made Alison's job easier by asking Spencer before she had to say anything to him. Alison smiled as she pranced out to stand in the middle of the group for the picture. She was going Noel, but was planning to go stag as soon as she got there – Ben had actually asked her before, but she had told him that he needed to bring Emily.

"Can I just get one of Jason and Aria?" Ella asked as Mike ran around somewhere in the yard with his toy lacrosse stick, "Then I have to get Mike to soccer."

"Thanks so much for taking them, Ashley," Mrs. DiLaurentis said, and the other mothers mumbled in agreement.

"It's no problem," Ashley replied.

"Thanks Mrs. Marin," Aria said as she and Jason posed for Ella's picture.

Later, once they had all gotten into the dance, they had separated. Jason and Aria ended up on the opposite side of the room from everyone else, and Jason pulled her in close to him.

"Jason," Aria was surprised as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"What?" He smirked as he set his forehead against hers.

"Nothing," She barely breathed out.

"I can't wait until you're here with me," He said and she gave him a quizzical look, "In the high school, there's so much more – freedom."

"Thanks for getting us all in," Aria replied and he chuckled.

"Ali didn't give me much of a choice," He replied, "She was more than eager to come – probably just because you would be going, and Spence. She'd hate to think she was missing out on something like this."

"How'd you get Noel to bring her?"

"He was more than happy to," Jason was just as surprised as Aria, even as he was telling her.

"Yikes," Aria said and Jason chuckled, gently tipping her face up to angle her lips towards his.

"Aria," He whispered, "Can I kiss you?"

"Of course."

Jason moved one of his hands up to the back of her head, and leaned into kiss her for the first time. His lips landed softly on hers, and she pulled herself closer to him.

**** Present Day ** **

It was the day before the big Halloween dance, and the whole school was all chattery about it. The club that ran it had gotten permission to play dance music at lunch. Aria and Ezra walked in laughing from their class and headed over to the lunch line. Ezra started to dance a little in place while behind Aria in line for a slice of pizza.

"Are you dancing?" Aria chuckled as she looked over at him.

"Just getting ready for tomorrow," He replied, chuckling, "Can I reserve a dance?"

"Ah, of the things that we push," Aria said, "This should not be one of them. Alison's gonna be..."

"I don't like her, in the least," He replied and Aria nodded, she didn't really like him either.

"But she'll make my life miserable."

"C'mon, Aria, loosen up," He smiled.

"This is a terrible situation."

"You're telling me," Ezra reminded her, "Even if I wanted to ask someone to the dance – all the girls would be too scared to say yes."

"You want to ask someone to the dance?"

"Well yes, but I'm fairly certain she already has a date," He said and she rolled her eyes playfully.

"Quiet," Aria hushed him and he smiled sweetly as Aria stepped up to get her food, "You know the situation."

"That doesn't mean I like it," He replied as he grabbed the next tray and followed her to the registers.

Aria rolled her eyes at him said as Jason waved them over to the table, where everyone was already sitting. Aria led Ezra over to the table, and they took their usual seats at the end of the table, Aria next to Jason with Ezra across the table from Aria. Alison smiled her usual fake happy smile as she bounced over, and sat next to Ezra who she had become accustomed to sitting next to, ever since she had hatched her plan into action.

"Ok, so everyone's going to meet at Jason and I's by four," Alison announced to the table at large, "For pictures. Ezra, you're going to be my date tonight, right?"

"Ah," Ezra panicked, he had been dodging things like that for weeks, "I was planning on going stag, actually."

"Oh, but you're not going to subject me to going all by myself," Alison said, "Who am I going to take pictures with? Who am I going to dance with? They've all paired off without me."

"I thought we were all going as a group, as usual," Hanna spoke up, "It's kind of a free for all once we get there anyways."

"I just thought you might be going with Ian," Ezra said, as innocently as possible.

Aria was panicking, she wanted to save him – but knew she couldn't. If she said anything to stop Ali, it would be all too obvious to everyone at the table what was going on. There was already a silent understanding between her and Hanna, but she couldn't imagine what would happen if anyone else figured it out – like Jason. She was pretty sure Ali already knew, she had a knack for that, and Aria was fairly certain the whole charade she was putting on was more to punish her for her feelings for Ezra than to get Ian jealous.

"As if," Alison said, as if the idea of her with Ian was absolutely preposterous.

"Ali, lay off," Jason said, seemingly just tired of Ali's antics, but he took a quick look at Aria before continuing, "I would think you would be much happier going stag than with anyone."

Jason's comment seemed to shut her up pretty quickly, and the rest of lunch was relatively bearable. Aria took a deep breath before leaving lunch with Jason and Ezra to head to health class. This particular walk down the hallway was the Bain of Aria's existence. She held hands with Jason as Ezra walked on her other side. She could see and hear the whispers as they walked – but all three ignored them. Rumors about Aria and Ezra had popped up within a couple days of his arrival, but Aria and Jason showed as just as strong as ever. And it was true, Aria's relationship with Jason was just as sound as ever, they weren't fighting, and it wasn't bad, it was the same it always had been – it just wasn't the love Aria now knew she was capable of.

Aria had opted out of getting ready for the dance with the rest of the girls, and when she did, Hanna did the same. Ali, Emily, and Spencer were getting ready at Spencer's, then would be meeting everyone back over at the DiLaurentis'. Aria got into the little black dress she had gotten just for the occasion, took a minute to do her makeup, then headed out the door. This was her and Jason's dance, the dance they that they had kissed at for the first time. Tonight, she was going to try and just forget about Ezra – or at least push him to the back of her mind. Jason was all she cared about. She just kept repeating that over and over to herself.

"There's my beautiful lady," Jason smiled as Aria pulled in, the last of the friends so show up.

"Sorry," Aria said as Jason helped her out of the car, and kissed her softly.

They posed for Ali's mom to take pictures, and then piled into Jason and Ben's cars. Ezra took the hint from Aria ignoring him the whole time during pictures, and Alison getting into the backseat of Jason's car, to hop into Ben's car to ride over with Emily, Spencer, and Toby instead of bothering to drive with them. He didn't know why, because it was obviously better that way, but it bothered him a lot that Aria had completely ignored him during photos. It wasn't even that she ignored him, she was avoiding him – like she was looking right through him. She had never treated him like that. He exhaled somewhat magnificently.

"You ok, Ez?" Ben asked and I nodded.

"I'm fine."

"You know, once you get to the dance, you'll be able to avoid Alison much easier," Toby said and Spencer tapped his arm.

"Toby…"

"Thanks," Ezra smiled a little bit.

"You don't like her at all?" Emily asked, she seemed more pleading than anything.

"She's not really my type," Ezra said, putting it as nicely as possible.

"Who is your type?" Spencer asked, and Ezra just shook his head, looking out the window.

When they got to the dance, Ezra took the first opportunity he could to separate himself from the group. It wasn't that difficult, Aria seemed to be taking a 'If I keep myself busy with Jason this all won't go down in flames' approach. So she pulled Jason off to be the first couple on the dance floor. Their immense popularity led to almost the entire school to join them. Emily and Ben led the way to follow them, and the rest weren't too far behind them. Ezra bailed and headed in a zig zag pattern over to the refreshments table as Toby and Spencer, the last two other than Alison headed off.

Ezra safely made it to the refreshment table and grabbed himself a bottle of water before starting to edge around the floor. He figured if he kept moving, Ali wouldn't be able to find him in the crowd. Once he felt secure in the fact that he was sufficiently lost from her view, he spotted Aria and Jason dancing not too far away – he couldn't help but lean back against the wall and watch in envy.

"Hold on, Spence," Toby chuckled as she dragged him off the floor.

"I'll just get us both waters," She told him, then took off.

"Oh, hey man," Toby said as he realized Ezra was standing right beside where he had walked.

"Hey," Ezra said, not taking his eyes off Aria.

The way her body moved as she danced was killing him – but he couldn't look away. It was like a car crash he could see coming a mile away, if he just hit the brakes and looked away from her, he could avoid the collision but he just couldn't do it. He swallowed hard, trying to get the lump that was forming out of his throat. Why was he torturing himself? Why had he been so sure that she felt just as strongly for him as he did her? Why was he standing there, waiting around for her to realize what was going on?

"Ezra," Toby said, taking a deep breath, "You've got to let it go."

"She loves me too," Ezra said confidently and Toby nodded.

"She might," He replied, very seriously, "But she's with Jason. Let them run their course. If she feels the same, she'll leave him."

"She won't."

"Why wouldn't she?"

"She's afraid," Ezra told him, looking away only to look at Toby quickly, "He's all she's ever known. She's afraid of Ali, and she's confused. She loves Jason, but only the way you would love someone that's been in your life that long."

"They've been together since we were little kids," Toby said, "Jason's had a crush on her since we were babies."

"She's not a baby anymore," Ezra pointed out, "And she's not a little kid anymore either."

"You should relax," Toby said, "Have you been drinking?"

"Nope," Ezra said.

"Well, you should relax," Toby said, as Spencer returned, "Have some fun."

Ezra waved casually as they returned to the dance floor and he caught sight of Alison not too far away, so he moved. He casually walked to another section of the room, from which he could see Aria even more clearly, her every move. He cringed as he was able to see everywhere Jason was placing his hands.

"I love you, so much," Jason whispered just loud enough for Aria to hear over the music, and she smiled, "I would do anything for that smile. To see you happy."

"Why're you talking like that?" She asked, as the song switched to a slow one, "We're supposed to just be dancing."

"Whatever makes you happy," Jason smirked with a sparkle in his eyes.

Aria put her arms up around his neck, and he placed his hands down on her hips. She smiled as stooped a little so that she could put her head on his shoulder. This was her Jason, her dependable perfect Jason that was always there for her, not matter what. He loved her, and she loved him. It was simple, uncomplicated – what she'd had her whole life. She closed her eyes, enjoying the comfort and safety that was Jason to her. She opened her eyes and through the crowd, could see Ezra.

He was standing against the wall, and she could see him watching her. She could see the expression on his face, the look in his eyes. It was a whole mess of things, but mostly love. There was anger, and sadness, and confusion, and hurt but there was mostly a pure feeling of him wanting nothing more than to be the man that was holding her as she danced. In that second, she let herself feel.

She let herself feel everything she had been trying to swallow down all night. All of the things she had been locking deep inside since Ezra arrived in Rosewood. She closed her eyes, and let herself imagine. She imagined a world where Ezra was the one holding her, and Ezra was the one she would be leaving the dance with. They would go off together just before the dance was over and drive out to a lake. Their parents would think they were going to the after party sleepover, but they would spend the night out on the sand, not even bothering with a tent, just keeping each other warm all night. All she was thinking about was Ezra leaning in to kiss her –

She forced her eyes open, and Ezra was still watching her. Suddenly she couldn't breathe. The song was over, but she couldn't move.

"You ok?" Jason asked, as he let go of her.

"I'm just—" Aria felt light headed, her head was spinning and she was dying with guilt.

"Hanna," Jason tapped her on the shoulder, her and Sean were right there.

"Yeah?" Hanna turned around.

"Can you help Aria to the bathroom?" Jason asked, "Just let her get some air, and maybe cool down? I think it's too hot in here for her."

"Ok," Hanna said, taking one look at Aria and knowing something was horribly wrong.

"Here," Spencer said as she was alerted to the situation, and she handed Hanna her water bottle.

"Ok," Hanna said, taking Aria's arm, "Let's go."

Ezra watched as Hanna helped Aria out of the dance area, down the hall towards the bathrooms. He took a deep breath, he had been caught – Aria had seen him yet he wasn't so sure that was such a terrible thing. He watched as Jason went over to the refreshments table with Toby and Ben, and then went to go find Hanna and Aria.

"There you are," Alison said, jumping right in front of me on my way to the door.

"Hi, was just gonna go," He told her.

"Why would you do that?"

"I'm not feeling well," He replied, making a weak smile, "I'm feeling awful and nauseas."

"Oh, c'mon," Ali said, plastering on an innocent smile, "One dance?"

"I really shouldn't," Ezra said, "Ali I don't-"

"Em!" Alison said, seeing where the conversation was headed and running off before he could tell her.

He rolled his eyes, then headed out into the hall. It didn't take him too long to locate Hanna and Aria, who were sitting at a lunch table not too far away. Aria was guzzling down a bottle of water, and Hanna looked around, and saw him. She smiled slightly, and Aria looked up. Hanna got up from the table and approached him rather angrily.

"Hanna stop," Aria said as Hanna got close to him, "I need to talk to him."

"Fine, I'll be in the dance," She said, "I'll try to come up with something to tell them."

"Thanks," Ezra said and Hanna just gave him a look as she walked back into the dance.

"We should go somewhere else," Aria said, as Mona and her date came out of the dance and headed toward the exit – they were in plain view.

"Wherever you want," Ezra replied and Aria stood up.

He followed her through a few hallways until they got over to the library. As soon as the door closed behind Ezra, Aria turned around.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why can't you just leave me the hell alone?" Aria yelled, "Can't you see I'm with Jason? I'm happy and in love with him! Can't you see how difficult this is for me? Why can't you just leave me alone, and stop messing with me?"

"You're not in love with him," Ezra replied, swallowing, "How come you were ignoring me tonight? You were looking right through me, you don't do that. You've never done that."

"Because I love Jason!" Aria said, and both of them were wondering if she was trying to convince Ezra or herself, "I was ignoring you because I can't let this, whatever the hell is going on here hurt Jason. It's the way it should be, Ezra, I shouldn't see you the way I do. I love Jason."

"You may love him," Ezra said, taking a step closer to her, but she took a step back, "But you're not in love with him, I don't think you ever were, not really."

"I'm in love with him," tears started rolling down Aria's cheeks as she backed into a shelf, and Ezra was just about a foot away from her.

"You're not, you can't be," He told her and she blinked, "He's all you've ever known, and you're comfortable. You're not in love, at least not with him."

"It scares me-"

"I know," Ezra breathed, "You're scared. You're scared about what this means to Jason, because you do love him. You're afraid of Ali, and your friends. You're afraid of what happens when someone who's been a major character in your life is going to go away. But I think most of all you're afraid of me – what it means that you're just as in love with me, as I am with you. You've known it since the moment our eyes met, I'm right?"

Aria nodded, and Ezra closed the foot that was between them. He wrapped his arms around her tiny little body, and she morphed perfectly to him, the way they had both known it would happen. She moaned in contentment as her arms went around his middle, and he removed one arm from her back to tip her chin up towards him.

Their eyes locked, and he very slowly leaned in to kiss her. Their lips met, and they felt shock waves, and warmth pervade their bodies. Her tongue darted out from her mouth to catch a taste of his, the urge having been trapped inside of her form the moment they met. His tongue met hers, and wrapped itself around hers.

Then – in a millisecond the euphoria left them in a flash as Aria pulled away.

"Ezra," She put a hand up on the side of his face "I can't do this. Jason – I can't – you're amazing… and you're completely right, about everything but –"

"But what?" Ezra asked, stepping back.

"We can't."

Aria shrugged as her heart broke. She couldn't even look at Ezra, standing in front of her – possibly as broken hearted as she was to see her go.


	6. It's My Fault

A/N: Hey guys, just wanted to thank you all for reading! I'm having so much fun with this story…. Enjoy : )

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Six:

**** Three Years Ago ** **

"Are you ok, Aria?" Jason asked, walking into the Montgomery's living room.

Aria was sitting on the end of the couch, dazing off into space. She just had this blank expression on her face that scared Jason more than he was willing to admit. He sat down next to her and she melted over into his arms. He wrapped her up tight and kissed the top of her head as she cried into his shirt.

"Mike, he's gone."

"What?" Jason asked, suddenly much more concerned.

"He ran away," Aria said, pulling away from him, and trying to mop up her tears as she did, "We had a fight, and he just took off. He said he never wanted to see me ever again."

"Aria, he's your brother," Jason reasoned, "And he's ten. He didn't mean it."

"Of course he did," Aria said, "I'm a terrible older sister."

"Aria, you are the best older sister I have ever been witness to," Jason said, "And, I'm more than willing to bet he did not mean it. He's an angry kid, Aria – God only knows why – but you love him more than anyone could even imagine. Kids usually push away the people they love the most."

"Thanks," Aria said as Jason got up.

"Where're your parents?" He asked and Aria shrugged.

"They're not home from work yet," She said and Jason hopped up off the couch, "I'm supposed to be watching him – mom and dad're gonna kill me."

"No they're not," Jason said, "I'll help you find him. Do you have any idea where he'd go? He can't have gotten very far."

"We can check the baseball fields," Aria said, "Or maybe the playground?"

"C'mon," Jason said, handing her her coat as they ran out the door, "I'll go to the baseball fields, you head over to the playground. We'll meet back here whether we find him or not in fifteen minutes."

"Ok," Aria said as Jason ran off towards the baseball fields up the street.

Aria ran to the playground that was in the opposite direction. It was crawling with kids, but she took a deep breath and ran through the whole place, skimming for her little brother. Once it was clear that he wasn't there she ran back towards her house, hoping and praying that Jason had had more luck. She audibly sighed in relief as she saw Jason walking up, Mike thrown over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"I'm not going home," Mike said defiantly.

"So what's your plan?" Jason asked him, as Aria opened the door for him, and he carried him in, "You're ten, were you going to live in the dug out and eat old hot dogs for the rest of your life?"

Aria shut the door and Jason set him down.

"Apologize to Aria," Jason told him.

"Why?" Mike was disgusted with the idea.

"Apologize to your sister, who loves you," Jason said more firmly.

"I'm sorry, Aria," Mike stared at the ground.

"Mike, we're siblings – we're going to fight," Aria said, "But you can't just take off like that."

"I'm sorry," He repeated, sounding like he meant it much more this time.

"Mike, why don't you go to your room, and clean up," Jason said, "I'll make us all some mac and cheese."

"Ok," Mike said, and headed up the stairs.

"How did you do that?" Aria was shocked.

"I've dealt with enough of Alison's tantrums," Jason smirked as they walked into the kitchen, "And honestly, Mike is nothing compared to her."

"Why do I find that really easy to believe?" Aria chuckled as she handed him a box of mac and cheese, then went to get a pan.

"And," Jason went to add, "No one gets to be that rude, or that mean to you on my watch – no matter what happens."

**** Present Day ** **

For the first time that year, Aria was physically dreading school that day. She rolled over and hit her alarm clock until it shut up. There was no way she was going in today. It was the Monday just after the Halloween dance, and she had successfully avoided Ezra all weekend. At school, there was no avoiding him. He was in every single one of her classes – and someone would know if they were acting weird, and she couldn't allow herself to think that they would be able to act casual after what had happened at the dance.

If nothing else, she would just be drooling over him the whole time. All she had been able to think about all weekend. I knew I couldn't avoid him forever, and I knew I had to go back to school eventually – but I just needed one more day. She snuggled herself up under her covers again, and rolled over to further cacoon herslf. She had avoided Jason for the majority of the weekend too.

"Aria, time to get up for school," Ella said, popping her head into Aria's bedroom.

"I don't feel good, mom," Aria said, "Can I have like a mental health day?"

"What's the matter?" Ella asked, walking in and sitting on the foot of Aria's bed. "You never not want to go to school. You cried when I made you stay home because you had a hundred and two degree fever."

"Well I don't today."

"Ok, maybe I'll play hooky today too," Ella said, much more concerned with whatever was so wrong with her daughter than going to work that day, "I'll use a sick day, we'll hang out. Go back to bed. What do you want me to tell Jason when he comes to get you?"

"Just tell him I'm not feeling well," Aria said, "Better yet, I'll just text him."

"Ok" Ella said as she left the room to go make sure Mike was up.

Aria reached for her phone.

Hey, Jason, I'm not going to school today, I feel like crap :/ ~Aria.

Ok, love you. Hope you feel better. ~Jason.

"So are we feeling a movie, or some shopping?" Ella asked as she popped her head back into Aria's room.

"I think I just want to journal a bit," Aria told her, "How about a movie after?"

"Ok," Ella smiled as she left the room, "This way I get to drive Mike in to school too. I get to try and get a look at that new little girlfriend of his."

"Mom!" Aria heard Mike protest from down the hall.

Aria smirked a little, and then reached for her journal. She had been journaling feverishly since the night of the dance, trying to get all of her thoughts and feelings out onto paper, and organized so that the confusion and chaos that was running around in her head was a little more understandable. Yet somehow things were becoming even more complex as she broke them down and was less and less confused. She wasn't at all confused about how she felt, She was in love with Ezra, but she still loved Jason. Ezra had that part right. She wasn't willing to hurt Jason – though she already had – to be with Ezra – but not being with Ezra was starting to caught severe issues on the inside.

Plain and simple, what she wanted was Ezra to be hers, and Jason to be demoted to simply best friend. That would be her perfect world solution, but she knew it wasn't that easy. Alison worked very hard to keep everything everyone did under her thumb, and in her control. And, up until Ezra Aria hadn't really cared about that because her and Alison's wants were going in the same direction. Now, they couldn't be more opposite. Then again, the second she let herself admit that she wanted it that way, she was crippled with guilt because she should feel a larger tie to Jason, right? She shouldn't want to throw all that away.

"Ready for the movie?" Ella asked as she popped in a couple hours later.

"Ah, yeah," Aria said, not seeing the point in any further journaling, "Mind if I take a quick shower first?"

"No, go for it," Ella said, "You know, you've been acting off all weekend. And I haven't seen much of Jason or your friends."

"I was just feeling a bit antisocial."

"Yeah I noticed," Ella commented, then took a breath, knowing her daughter enough to know she needed a break, "Ok, movie in twenty minutes – shower quick."

Ella didn't say much at all during the movie, and left for a parents' meeting for Mike's lacrosse after the movie. Aria was home alone again, like she had secured for herself most of the weekend. She smiled as she went to the laundry room to pick up the laundry from the dryer. She had just filled the laundry basket when she heard someone knocking on the door. She set the laundry down and headed for the door. She peaked out the window for a second to see who it was before she opened the door. It was Ezra, and he still had his school bag over his shoulder.

"What're you doing here?" Aria opened the door, and he stepped inside without waiting for an invitation.

"I brought you your work," Ezra said, walking into the house as Aria shut the door, "You don't look sick, are you feeling better?"

"I needed the day," Aria said and Ezra nodded, understandingly as he set her assignments on the kitchen table for her, "There's just – a lot going on."

"Jason said you were sick."

"That's what I told him this morning," Aria admitted and Ezra gave her a concerned look.

"You've been dodging everybody all weekend," He said, following her as she left the room for the living room, and sat on the couch with her, "Jason was worried, he said you hadn't missed a day of school in as long as he could remember."

"I just can't deal with people right now," Aria told him, "I have too much on my mind. I'll be there tomorrow. I know you're mad, and frustrated but you have to understand-"

"This is your life, Aria," Ezra smiled to show her he understood, "Jason, and Alison. That whole group looks after each other closer than a family. If you and Jason suddenly weren't together anymore, who's to say they would still accept you? – Am I getting close here?"

"Why do you have to do that?" Aria asked.

"Do what?"

"Make it so I'm not a monster," Aria said, "Wouldn't it just be easier to hate me at this point? I'm a coward—"

"There would be nothing simple about me hating you, Aria," Ezra replied, "All I want to do is understand, I've spent hours studying you and how you relate to the group. Your definition within the group, or at least part of it, is that you're with Jason. And I don't know the extent of Alison's power, but I don't think Hanna, Emily, and Spencer would just ditch you like that."

"Ezra," Aria breathed, "I'm just trying to figure out what's best – for everyone involved. Like you said, my group of friends are closer than family – and Jason and I have been together a long time – too long."

"Too long?" Ezra's ears perked up.

"Ezra, I'm in love with you," Aria admitted to him, to herself for the first time out loud, "But I don't know how I can –"

"Say no more," Ezra jumped off the couch, "I told myself I was going to check on you, and bring you your homework. That was it. I didn't want to get into this with you again."

"No, Ezra," Aria said, "We do need to talk about it, but I think it would be best if we just kept our distance from each other for a while."

"If that's what you want," Ezra said, and Aria nodded.

"I think it is," She replied, and he nodded.

Ezra couldn't even put words to the sharp pain in his chest, he felt like there was a sharp blade in his chest. There was a sharp blade in his chest, and he couldn't do anything to stop it. He couldn't do anything to stop it, and the blood was starting to rise up in his throat as he gave her a pleasant smile. There was nothing to be said, this was what she wanted – so that was what he'd give her. He would give her her space, and pray to high heaven that she would figure out what he already had.

There was a knock on the door, and Aria looked out the window. It was Jason, standing on the front step with what looked like a bowl of soup. Ezra saw him too, and nodded.

"I better head out the back door," He said sadly as he walked towards the back door.

Aria watched him go with a knot in her chest and a guilty feeling in her stomach. She took a deep breath, but couldn't shake the feeling that she was making a terrible mistake, though she knew she would feel that way whichever path she was had chosen.

"Hey," She faked a weak smile as Jason walked into the door, handing her soup.

"Hey, sweetie," He smiled softly as he leaned over and kissed her forehead.

The next day at school Aria wasn't much more social. She was already missing Ezra, or maybe it was that she was dreading not speaking to him every day – not being able to hang out with him all the time. She walked up, looking rather defeated to their usual lunch table. Ezra was sitting by himself over in the corner of the cafeteria, and she sat in her usual seat with Jason.

"Why's Ezra over there?" Spencer asked, and Aria shrugged.

"Because he wants to sit over there?" Aria didn't even look up.

"Why don't I go get him?" Alison said, "He obviously missed us when he sat down."

"Leave him alone, Ali," Hanna said, trying to make eye contact with Aria, "He's probably just having an off day."

"Fine," Alison sat down and Jason put an arm around Aria – who thought she was going to cry.

"Did you and Ezra have a falling out?" Jason asked her quietly once conversation resumed as per normal.

"We got into a little fight," Aria whispered back, "Let him have his space."

"Is this why you've been so off?" Jason asked, "You don't handle conflict with people you care about too well."

"It's fine, Jason," Aria said, and Jason shook his head.

"If he's ignoring you, he has no right."

"Jason, he does."

"No," Jason said, getting up, "No one hurts you, no matter what, remember?"

"Jason," Aria grabbed his arm.

"I'll be right back," He said, "What're best friends for if not to tell the other friends when they're being douches?"

"Jason, sit down," Aria said urgently, "Leave him alone."

"Are you sure?" He asked and Aria nodded.

"Of course," Aria tried to regain composure.

"Ok," Jason gave her a suspicious look, "Then why don't you go over there and talk to him? There's clearly something wrong."

"I've already talked to him," Aria said as the bell rang and they all rushed off to their classes.

Aria managed to avoid just about everyone until the end of the day. She was heading out to the parking lot, trying to figure how best to head home. She had the urge to walk, but she knew that Rosewood was much too small a town for that. She would run into someone, she was about to text Jason to see what time he got out of practice when Hanna popped up next to her out of nowhere.

"Hey, wanna ride home?" Hanna asked, "Mom let me take her car for the day."

"Thanks," Aria smiled as Ezra walked by, pointedly not looking at her.

"So, if you don't mind me asking," Hanna said, "What happened with Ezra?"

"I don't want to talk about it," Aria said, and Hanna rolled her eyes as she unlocked the car.

"You've got to talk to someone about it, Aria," Hanna told her wisely, "It might help. I promise, whatever you say stays between us – no questions asked."

"We're in love," Aria said, as they drove away from the school, "With each other."

"Ok, so what else is new?" Hanna asked.

"Has it been that obvious to everyone?"

"No, just me," Hanna said, "I mean, Ali has her suspicions but – why haven't you broken up with Jason?"

"Because I love him too."

"You've been with him a long time."

"But there's just not the same – feeling, with Jason as when I'm with Ezra," Aria said, "Jason and I, we're comfortable, we've always been comfortable and that's it. Ezra-"

"I see," Hanna said as she stopped outside of Aria's house, "But, Aria, you and Jason, you've been together so long, it was bound to get boring eventually."

"It hasn't gotten boring," Aria said, "Trust me if there was any reason like that for me to break up with Jason, it would make my life so much easier. I feel like a girl I would have once strangled: 'I have two amazing guys that are perfect and are head over heels for me—Oh, I could never choose.'"

"Well, choose."

"I kind of already have," Aria said, "I just needed Ezra away so I could figure out how to—"

"Break up with Jason?" Hanna asked.

"Just keep your mouth shut, ok?" Aria asked, and Hanna nodded as Aria got out of the car.

"Text me later, ok?"

"Sure."

"Aria!" Jason walked up to her as Hanna pulled away.

"Hey," Aria said, plastering a smile on her otherwise nauseated face.

"Can I talk to you?" He asked, and Aria nodded – leading him inside the house.

Aria led Jason into the house and into the living room. He sat down on the couch, and pulled her down by the hand to gently bring her to sit by his side.

"Aria, I need to talk to you about something, but I need you to let me finish before you say anything, ok?"

"Ok," Aria agreed.

"I know what's been going on, with everything," He said, taking a deep breath, "I know you better than anyone in the world, Aria. I knew the second I saw you talking to him what was going on. You were, you do – you look at him the way I've been dying for you to look at me for years. I was trying to see if it would pass, but obviously it's not going to. He's a good guy, and from what I've seen not worthy of you – but who is? I'm not either. I should have let you off the hook the minute I realized what was going on. You told him you wanted distance, right? So that you could be with me?"

"So that I could figure out what to do," Aria said and Jason nodded.

"Aria," He said sweetly, "I'm in love with you, I've been in love with you from the second I met you. But it didn't work that way for you – and that's ok. It worked that way with Ezra, and apparently it was reciprocated this time. He's a lucky son of a bitch."

"Jason, I do love you."

"I know you do," Jason smiled weakly, "That's why you didn't break up with me, right? Well I'm breaking up with you, to be one of your best friend srather than the guy that you'll only ever hold as second. How good of a best friend would I be if I let you stay with me? I don't want that, I want you to be happy, and I can't do that anymore. You're in love, and once you're in love – just loving someone won't cut it anymore."

"What're we going to do about Alison?"

"You let me take care of that," He replied, "I'm not scared of her."

"Jason, I—"

"I'll handle it, ok?" He said and I shook my head.

"It's my fault."

"It's no one's fault," Jason replied, "It's mine, if anyone's."

"Jason, I kissed him," Aria confessed.


	7. A Friend

A/N: Hey everyone… let's keep the ball rollin' shall we? Ok so….

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Seven:

**** Three Years Ago ** **

Aria was walking out of school later than usual one day, after having stayed after for extra help with her math project that was due at the end of the week. She readjusted her backpack on her shoulders and checked her phone for the time. She was supposed to be at the DiLaurentis' for dinner at six, she had just enough time to go home and change before she headed over. Her mother had offered to have Jason over the next day, it was like they were switching off houses – but it worked, for them.

She was walking down the street when she started coming up on Ben's house. She could hear who was in the yard before she could see them, so she made a split second decision to duck behind a tree.

"… No, Ben," Alison said angrily, "You're not with me. You're with Emily."

"I'm not with anyone," Ben refuted, sounding even angrier, "I took Em to the dance because you told me if I did, you would go out with me."

"Ha, fat chance," Ali said, "You didn't really believe me, did you Ben?"

"I'm not going to ask Em out," Ben said, "She's not for me."

"You will ask Emily out, Ben," Alison said, "If you want to stay in this group of friends."

"Don't act like we're all under your thumb," Ben said, annoyed, "We're all our own people here, Ali."

"That's cute," Ali chuckled, "Emily likes you, so it won't be that hard for me to say something to get all the girls against you, Ben. Then, where the girls go, the boys follow. Jason's with Aria, Sean's with Hanna, and Toby's with Spencer. Do you really think they'll have time to hang out with each other, their girlfriends, and then find time to fit you in separately?"

"Why're you such a bitch, Alison?" Ben asked, "I can't believe I liked you."

"You still do," Alison smirked, "Face it, Ben. I run this town, I've got everyone wrapped right around my finger. Ask Em out, ok? I promise, you'll be happy you did. She's a great girl."

"I'm not doubting that she's great," Ben said, "She's just not my type."

"Ben, you don't have a type," Alison said, "You're just lucky she has a thing for you. I don't know many girls who do."

"I don't know that I want to involve myself with anyone who'd be friends with you."

"Don't cross me, Ben," Alison said, ending the argument, "Call Em, tonight."

**** Present Day ** **

Jason stopped right in his tracks, this was not something that he had thought of.

"Well, he kissed me," Aria scrambled to explain, "But I didn't-"

"When?" Jason asked and Aria took a deep breath.

"At the dance, on Friday," Aria told him, "After Hanna returned to the dance, we went to the library to talk because we were clearly having issues. Then we were fighting, because I was upset, and then he said some things that were – and then he kissed me. I made him stop but—"

"You didn't want him to," Jason nodded understandingly, "Aria, I knew long before that that I'd lost you. Don't worry about it. I've still got Alison."

"What're you going to tell her?" Aria asked, slightly taken off guard.

"I'm going to tell her that I ended it," Jason said, taking a deep breath, "That I just wasn't in love with you anymore."

"Why're you doing this, Jason?"

"Because I love you," He said simply, "Because if the truth is what's presented to her, you and Ezra will never be at peace. That's all I want for you, Aria – I want you to be happy and this way, Ali has the chance to approve you guys – if you play your cards right. And if he hurts you, I'll kill him."

"She's never going to approve," Aria said, choosing to ignore the last bit, and he nodded.

"Well, I'll give you a hint," He smiled, "No one in this town cares what she thinks, other than our group of friends. And Aria, this town is used to us. I'd rather you and Ezra have a shot to be accepted rather than just be a scandal."

"You're an amazing guy, Jason," Aria said, and he rolled his eyes, "You are going to make some girl happier than you could ever make me someday."

"It's what anyone would do," Jason smiled slightly as he leaned in and kissed her forehead, "Goodbye, Aria. Give me a little while ok?"

"Sure," Aria said, her heart sinking to see the slight hurt in his face – he was an expert at hiding his emotions – he had to be living with Alison.

"I just need a few days," He smiled weakly, "We'll talk soon. I'll call you, or tell you when I'm ready, ok?"

"Ok," Aria said, making a mental note, "Still one of my best friends?"

"That could never change, Aria," He said, as he headed for the door, "I just need to process – a break – I promise, I'll always be there for you. I just need a couple day to… recover."

"I'm so sorry, Jason."

"There's no reason to be," He said as he opened the door, "Aria, you were only a little girl when we started dating. You're growing up, and that means changing."

Jason left before Aria could say another word, and Aria collapsed onto the couch. She took a deep breath, waiting for the tears to start to come, but they didn't. She wondered if she was in shock, and stood up. They had ended things to amicably, maybe she would be alright.

"Aria?" Ella asked as she walked into the room, "Was that Jason? He could have stayed for dinner."

"No, he couldn't have," Aria said and Ella looked at her daughter a little strangely, "We just broke up."

"What?" Ella was shocked, "Why? Don't worry honey, I'm sure it won't last."

"No, mom – Jason and I are done," Aria formed the words very carefully, "We've resolved that in time, we can be friends – but we're not together, anymore."

"Are you ok with this?" Ella asked.

"I think I will be," Aria replied as she picked up their junior prom picture off the mantle, "But would you mind taking these all down?"

"Of course."

Ezra had walked home from school, Jason had offered him a ride, but he hadn't felt right taking it. He walked into his house after noticing a foreign silver car in the driveway. He wondered vaguely whether his mom had a visitor as he walked up the walkway towards the house. He walked through the door and his mother was waiting for him in the overly decorated living room.

"You're later than usual," She observed, not unkindly, "I thought Jason drove you home from school?"

"Oh, I didn't want it today," He shrugged.

"Would this have something to do with Aria?"

"What? No, mom," Ezra said frantically and she nodded, pursing her lips.

"Because I am on committees with Mrs. DiLaurentis, Ezra," she said, "And I don't want any bad blood."

"Don't worry about it," Ezra said, and she nodded.

"That's what I like to hear."

"Who's car's in the driveway?"

"Yours," She replied, "I know you're too good to ask for one, but we're not in the city anymore. You'll need wheels to get yourself around."

"Thanks," Ezra said, surprised at his mother's thoughtfulness.

"And, there's a benefit dinner for the public gardens in a month, I want you to come with me."

"Mom-"

"I know, it's not really your scene," His mother said, handing him the key to the car, "But…"

The car was a bribe.

"I would have gone with you without the car," Ezra told her, his eyebrows raised.

"I know," Mrs. Fitz said, "But first impressions are very important in this town, and this will be the first dinner since I've joined."

"Ok," Ezra said, putting the car keys into his pocket.

"Just don't tell your brother, ok?" She said, "He's still in New York, he doesn't need one. But, if he finds out you have one…"

"He'll need one," Ezra knew his brother well enough to know that his mother was right.

"So, do you like the Montgomery girl?" She asked, mostly out of morbid curiosity.

"She's with Jason."

"She may not be forever," She pointed out, "But how close are you with Jason?"

"He's ok, he's a friend," Ezra said, "Last time I checked."

"Yeah, Mrs. DiLaurentis is like that too," She said, and Ezra took a deep breath, "The reason I'm asking is because Mrs. Montgomery…"

"Mom, it's been a long day," Ezra said, not wanting to discuss the Montgomery's any further, "Can I just go get cleaned up?"

"Oh, of course," She said, "Then, how about we go out to dinner? Give you an excuse to drive the new car."

"Mind if I just go out with Toby?"

"Toby Cavanaugh?"

"Yeah."

"I guess so," She replied, "This Toby runs in the same crowd?"

"He does," Ezra said, from his room where he was changing into a t-shirt rather than the usual dress shirt style he wore to school.

"Ok." She replied as his phone went off on his bed.

_Jason and Aria just broke up. Call me. ~Toby_

Aria was sitting on her couch with her dinner. Her mother had been hesitant, but had to leave her at the house to go to Mike's game, which Aria hadn't felt up to going to. Her father brought her a pint of Chunky Monkey when he got home from work—she was sure on her mom's request. It was waiting for her in the freezer, but she was much more concerned with what was waiting for her when she got to school the next day.

"You ok, Aria?" Byron asked as he walked out into the room from his study.

He had, on Ella's request made up an excuse to stay home – he had too many papers that needed grading.

"Yeah, dad," She half-smiled, and he nodded.

"You really think Jason's not him, huh?"

"No."

"What about Ezra?"

"Dad," Aria's eyes expanded.

"Oh, c'mon," He said, "I can't be too far off, can I?"

"Dad, Jason and I just broke up," Aria said and Byron nodded.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked," He said as he went to put himself back into his study.

Before he could get there, someone knocked on the door. He made for the door, and saw Spencer, Hanna, Emily, and Alison standing on his doorstep. He smiled at them, Emily was carrying what looked like homemade cupcakes.

"Can we see Aria?" Ali's sickeningly sweet voice asked.

"We baked her cupcakes," Emily said.

"One second, girls," Byron said, and he closed the door and went to Aria, "Your friends are here, are you accepting visitors?"

"Which ones?" Aria asked.

"Hanna, Spencer, Alison, and Emily," He rattled them off, taking her empty dinner plate, "Who else would you be expecting?"

"No one," Aria breathed, "You can let them in."

"Ok," Byron said, taking a small detour only to drop Aria's plate in the sink and then went and opened the door for them.

"Aria, you haven't been answering your phone – we were worried," Emily said as they all traipsed into see her sitting on the couch.

"I shut it off."

"My brother's such an ass," Ali said as they all plopped down on the couch with Aria.

"Did he give you a reason?" Spencer asked.

"He already changed his status on Facebook," Hanna said, and Aria tried not to think about it too hard – after all she had just de-Jasoned her whole house.

"He said he just wasn't in love anymore," Aria said, and Hanna looked down at the ground as everyone supplied her with little bits of comfort.

"That's what he told me, too," Alison said, "He's being an idiot, Aria. He'll come around."

"I don't think he will," Aria said and Alison's face contorted a bit.

"He'll come around, don't worry about it, Aria," She said, "He loves you – even if he's too pigheaded to realize right now."

"Where is he?" Spencer asked, all riled up, "I could talk to him right now."

"He's at the house with Sean and Ben," Alison said, "I already tried talking to him once today, though."

"Where's Toby?" Hanna asked.

"He said something about Ezra's mom going ballistic," Spencer said, "They're going out to dinner, then I think Toby's going over to Jason's."

"Awe, a man date."

"Guys, I think Jason and I've just grown apart," Aria said and Ali rolled her eyes.

"These things can be fixed, Aria," Ali smiled controllingly.

Aria had had a feeling that things would not be as simple as Jason had said they would.

"No, guys," said Aria, "I'm fine. It was a good break up, we're still going to be best friends, and after a few days there'll be no change, I promise."

"Oh, Aria," Ali said patronizingly, "You're so strong. You don't have to be. Jason will be yours again in no time."

"Ali, please don't."

"I know you're hurt right now, but I know you'll do what's best."

Ezra was sitting in his new car with Toby in the front seat. He had just finished filling Toby in on everything that had happened in the past four days. Toby was speechless.

"So what happened?" Toby asked, "Did Aria break up with Jason, or did Jason break up with her?"

"I don't know," Ezra said, "She asked for space, and I intend on giving her that until she tells me otherwise. She just broke up with Jason after five years, it'll be a while."

"I have to get over to Jason's," Toby said, looking at his phone, "He says to bring you with me."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Ezra panicked.

"Relax, Jason's much cooler than you know," He said, "Ben and Sean have a game tonight. It would be too suspicious if you didn't come too."

"And what if they're all just waiting there to beat the shit out of me?" Ezra asked and Toby shook his head.

"Jason's not like that, Ezra," He said, "C'mon, you know that."

Ezra took a deep breath as he started up the engine again, and they headed over to the DiLaurentis' house. Sean and Ben were coming out of the house as they pulled into the driveway and Ben smiled.

"Nice wheels, Fitzy," He said friendly.

"Thanks, just got 'em," Ezra said as they got out of the car.

"How is he?" Toby asked Sean and he shrugged.

"A little torn up," He said, "But he seems like he'll be ok. Won't hear a bad word against her."

"Cracked," Ben said, "C'mon, Sean – we're going to be late."

"We'll see you guys later," Toby said, putting a hand on Ezra's back and forcing him into the house.

"Hey, guys," Jason said as he walked in, he noticed how scared Ezra looked right off the bat, "Ezra – dude – take a breath. I'm not angry with you. Aria told me everything. I just needed to talk to you – you both. I figure you already filled Tobes in?"

"Yeah, he told me," Toby said when Ezra didn't say anything.

"I'm really sorry," Ezra said and Jason waived it off.

"Ezra, it was bound to happen," Jason said, "Aria was never as in to me as I am to her. I knew it was only a matter of time before someone came along. And the way it happened I had a couple months to come to terms with it. I'm just glad it's you, a nice guy I know'll treat her well. But hey, the story is that I broke up with her because I just wasn't feeling it anymore."

"What? Why? Why would you do that?"

"Because," Jason said, "If you and Aria are going to have any shot of a chance, she needs to be the victim. It's not like I'm going to be dating anyone any time soon. It's just easier. I'm sure she'd have done the same thing for me. Aria and I's relationship, we've always had a good head about it. We told ourselves the whole way that we were best friends first, and our relationship came second. A best friend could never make her deprive herself something like this, and neither can I."

Ezra went quiet as Toby and Jason went back and forth trying to figure out how Alison was going to do. His mind was reeling, did this mean that he and Aria – there was actually going to be a him and Aria? What if she changed her mind? What if she already had? Or maybe she was just giving it a few days? It would be a while before it would seem acceptable for her to be seeing someone new, but he was terrified now that she was free of Jason, maybe she'd realize how great Jason was. What if he couldn't match up? Either way, for all he knew she still wanted space.

"Hey, Ez," Jason extended his hand, "Still friends, no hard feelings?"

"Yeah, of course," He absent mindedly shook Jason's hand.

"What's wrong, dude?" Jason asked, "You look how I feel."

"It's just – a lot."

"If you punk out and hurt her, I will kill you," Jason said, immediately and shook my head.

"No, no it's the opposite," Ezra told him, "I'm starting to worry she'll change her mind."

"She won't," He said, and Ezra nodded, "Anyways – I'm exhausted and could do with a little alone time. Could you guys go? I can give you rides home if you want."

"No, Ez's got wheels," Toby said and Jason raised his eyebrows.

"My mom just gave it to me," Ezra said flashing his keys and Jason nodded.

"I'll see it tomorrow?" He asked, and Ezra nodded as Toby ushered him out of the house.

"Hey, Toby, Ezra," Mrs. DiLaurentis greeted them with smiles, "Jason!"

"Hey mom," Jason said.

"What's wrong?" Mrs. DiLaurentis asked as she stopped Ezra and Toby, "Why're you boys leaving? I'm about to cook dinner."

"Aria and I broke up," Jason told his mother, "They just came by to check in on me."

"You and Aria broke up?"

Toby and Ezra took their cue to go, thanking Mrs. DiLaurentis as they headed for Ezra's car. They hopped in and pulled away from the house just as Toby's phone went off in his pocket.

_Did you say Ezra's got wheels?It's really dark out now, do you think he'd mind giving Em, Ali, and I a lift home? ~Spencer._

"Spencer wants to know if you can give the girls rides home from Aria's," Toby said, "I'll just tell her no."

"No, I'll do it," Ezra said.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I'll do it. They'll just have to come out," He said, "I don't think I have enough seats in the back though."

"Hanna lives across the street," Toby said and Ezra nodded as he drove over to Aria's house, and parked out front.

"Ezra," Emily said, like she had found the holy grail as she and the other two piled into the back of his car.

"Yeah, Em?" He replied, hoping that he was wrong about the direction the conversation would go.

"Good idea, Em," Alison said, "Ezra, I know you and Aria are having a tiff or something at the moment, but you should go in and talk to her. Tell her Jason'll be back before she knows it."

"Yeah, she's like in shock or something," Emily said.

"I don't think me going in there will make anything better," Ezra said, taking a deep breath, "She's pissed at me, I'm sure she doesn't even want to speak with me, never mind have me just walk right into her house."

"Oh, c'mon, Ezra," Emily said, "This is no time to stay away just because of some stupid fight that you had with her. You're her closest guy friend now that Jason's being a jerk."

"I'm sure she'd love to see you," Alison said, in that weird all-knowing voice, "You can't bail on her now."

"Do you three want rides home or not?" Ezra asked.

"I can't believe you're not going to be there for her," Spencer sounded livid, "After all she's done for you."

"Fine," Ezra got out of the car, shutting the door just a little too hard and headed for the front door.


	8. Put Us On Pause

A/N: Hey guys, thanks for the reviews! And sorry this took so long… been a bit - distracted - lately, anyways I'll try to do better at keeping on top of this story… because it's a lot of fun… anyways Enjoy! And leave me a note if you'd like : )

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Eight:

**** Three Years Ago ****

"C'mon, don't be a baby, Jason," Alison said cattily as she lounged in her chair, "Just do it."

It was summer, and they were hanging out by Spencer's lake house. Spencer's mom was inside, but her father had made up some excuse not to come very late into the planning process. It was all of them, Aria, Jason, Ben, Emily, Hanna, Sean, Spencer, Toby, and Alison. Ali was sitting very happily in her chair and Hanna had pulled out one too, to sit beside her. Jason had just fashioned a rope swing, with a little loop for your foot by throwing a rope he had found in the garage over an especially high tree limb.

"I'm not entirely sure it's safe," Jason said, pulling on the rope, "What if it lets go too early? Or the knot tightens and you can't get your foot out of it?"

"Give it to me," Ben said, extending his hand and Jason tossed it to him.

"No," Jason said, giving it another good tug and putting his foot in the loop to test that too, "Ok."

"I'll test it," Toby chuckled as he took it from Jason.

He didn't even wait for anyone to say anything as he put his foot into the loop, and jumped forwards over the water. He swung out and then dropped off of it relatively safely once he was over the deepest portion of the lake. The rope came back to where the group was standing, and Jason caught it, and followed Toby's lead.

"You're lucky, Spencer," Ali said as Spencer took a seat and Sean and Ben went onto the swing to get out to Jason and Toby.

"Why, all the guys are out there," Spencer said and Ali just smirked.

"It's just good to have a guy who knows what he wants," Ali smirked, "And isn't afraid to go for it."

"Thanks," Spencer said, slightly awkwardly.

"A guy who knows what he wants is a very valuable thing," Ali was in one of her teaching modes, which each of the girls attempted to not take her words to heart, "Em, you might be in trouble with Ben."

"Ben's fine," Emily said, "He was jumping to go before Toby."

"He didn't even wait for it to be safe," Ali said, "That's just stupid. I see many broken limps and hospital visits in your future."

"Mmm," Emily said, and Aria patted her shoulder, "I'm going to go get some lemonade – anyone else want something?"

"We'll all have lemonade," Ali said, "Don't forget to get some for the boys too…"

"I'll go with you," Aria said, going to follow Emily towards the house.

"Thanks," Emily said as we walked into the house, "I just needed a break…"

"Don't worry about it, Em," Aria replied, "We've all been there."

"What's up girls?" Mrs. Hastings asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"We were just looking for some lemonade," Aria said and Mrs. Hastings went to the cabinet.

"There's too many of you for just a pitcher," She said, setting a water cooler, like for a sports team with a tap at the bottom onto the counter, "We'll just whip this up and you girls can bring it out."

"That'll be too heavy for them to carry," Mr. Hastings said as Mrs. Hastings stirred the lemonade, "Where're the boys?"

"In the lake," Aria said.

"Where else would they be?" Emily asked lightly and Mr. Hastings smiled.

"I'll carry it," Mr. Hastings offered, "You girls get the cups."

**** Present Day ****

Ezra took a deep breath as he walked up to the door and knocked on the door. Byron came to the door, and saw him standing on the doorstep. Aria came around the corner to get a peak at the door. She hadn't been expecting Ezra to stop by, and frankly she wasn't exactly ready to see him.

"Hi, Ezra, c'mon in," Byron greeted him kindly, "Are you finishing off the visitors."

"Hopefully, sir," Ezra smiled as Byron shut the door behind him.

"Aria," Byron said, turning around, "One more visitor."

"Hey," Aria said, trying to keep down a squeal as Byron disappeared into his study.

"I'm sorry," Ezra whispered his apology immediately after Byron had gone, following Aria into the living room, "I didn't want to come in. I came by to pick Ali, Emily, and Hanna up so I could give them a lift home. They coerced me into coming in to check on you. I can just stand her a few minutes and leave. You haven't said anything to me since you asked for space; I was planning on still honoring that."

"No," Aria realized, "I want to see you, I want to talk to you. I only… Jason and I – we've been done for a long time."

"He said the same."

"You've seen him?"

"I was just over there with Toby," Ezra informed her, "He seemed ok, he wasn't particularly angry. He seemed to only want to make sure we were still ok."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah," Ezra replied, "Do you want to talk like sit down in chat or…"

"Can you stay?" Aria knew it was probably a bad idea, but she couldn't help but want him there with her.

"I have drive the girls and Toby home," Ezra said, taking a deep breath, "But I can be back in like – twenty minutes."

Aria nodded, and Ezra went back out the front door. He drove Toby home, and then dropped Emily off right in front of her house. Then, with only Spencer and Alison in the back seat he drove over and stopped just between the Hastings' and the DiLaurentis' houses. Spencer hopped right out, but Alison stayed in the backseat.

"Hey, Ezra," Alison was trying to be seductive, and all of Ezra's alarms went off in his head, "Would you mind walking me to my door? It's a little spooky out tonight – I'm a little scared."

"I can pull into your driveway," Ezra feigned to not notice her advances as she slipped to the front seat instead, as he started driving, and pulled into her driveway, "What're you doing?"

"What's the matter, Ezra?" She asked as he put the car in park right next to her walkway to the front door, "You don't think I'm pretty or something?"

"It has nothing to do with that, Ali," Ezra wasn't sure how to approach this, "You're just not my type, Alison. And, I have somewhere to be."

"Where?" Alison said, then rolled her eyes, "Oh c'mon, Ezra. You're my type, and I don't think these things are coincidences. That you would just show up here."

"Ali, I just don't see you that way," Ezra said, wanting to scream, but knowing that he had to remain polite, "I don't think that I ever would. I'm kind of in love with someone else. Which makes all of your advances really awkward – and completely unwelcome. I really have absolutely no interest in you like that."

-Or at all. And that was the nice version of what was going on in Ezra's head. There was a part of him that wanted nothing more than to call her a stupid slut, and kick her out of his car. To sever all ties, and run for the hills, bringing Aria – his love, far away from this crazy little town and away from Ali's reign of terror.

"You're making a huge mistake."

"I don't think I am," Ezra replied politely, "I think it would be a mistake to…"

"When I figure out who she is – she's toast," Ali said threateningly, "Maybe you'd like to reconsider? In order to protect her?"

"You can try and hurt her all you want, Ali," Ezra replied, his temper rising, "But I'm not going to. Who says she's in Rosewood? Who says you can hurt her? If anything ever works out, I'll protect her from by her side. Not yours. Now I have to go, please get out of my car. I've tried being nice to you, I don't see how this helps you."

Alison got out with a scathing look, and walked up to her front door. Ezra waited to see that she walked inside then backed very quickly out of the driveway. Ezra drove around a little, he had done his best to seem strong and unafraid in front of Alison, and he wasn't afraid for himself – he was afraid for Aria. Aria's whole life was dependant on Ali and their whole group. They were her friends and had been forever. They, collectively didn't mean as much to him as they did to her. He cared about them – wasn't too fond of Ali – but he did care. Anything Ali did to hurt Aria, it would effect her a lot more than him. He understood now better than he did before, how much of a risk he was to her.

He was now parked outside her house, unsure of whether or not he should actually go in. Ali had delayed him, and he was already late. Aria had already made the plunge for me, she was already halfway there. All he had to do was show up, and he immediately wanted to crucify himself for his thought. It was selfish, not helpful, no matter how he was looking at it. Aria wanted him, who was he to say whether or not her risk was too risky. They loved each other, it didn't matter what some girl they knew in high school thought? If they were exiled, it wouldn't be all Alison's fault. It would have to be all of them.

"That took a little longer than expected," Aria said as Ezra walked through the door.

"Yeah, Ali made sure she was the last one in the car," Ezra explained to her, "I had to ah – I don't think I'm on Ali's good list anymore."

"What happened?" Aria asked as she led him into the kitchen for a glass of water, which she got him as well, "Mom should be home with Mike soon."

"She – was trying to come on to me, pretty strongly," Ezra told her awkwardly, there was something immensely embarrassing to him about having to tell Aria, "More so than usual."

"What'd she do?"

"Just wordplay, and such," Ezra replied, "Asked me to walk her to her door."

"What did you say?"

"I drove her up her driveway," Ezra said, "I told her that I wasn't interested, as nicely as possible. Then she got angry and tried to force the idea into my head, and then I got a little ruder as it escalated."

"What did you end up telling her?" Aria asked and Ezra took a deep breath as she led him over to her couch, where they sat.

"In slightly nicer terms that she was making a fool out of herself, because I would never be interested in someone like her," Ezra took a deep breath, "And that I was already in love with someone. She didn't take that too kindly, but she got out of the car."

"Would she suspect it's me?"

"I don't know," Ezra said honestly, "I told her it wasn't necessarily someone in Rosewood—but seriously we haven't been hiding it all that well. Jason and Hanna and Toby knew."

"Toby?"

"He's told me he's known since day one."

"Ok," Aria took a breath, trying to get the image of Ali hitting on Ezra out of her head.

All she could think about was the idea of Her leaning in, her all over him in whatever kind of car he had gotten. For some reason Aria knew it was silver, that's what she was imagining. It made her blood boil, and captured her imagination, she hated everything about Ali in that moment. Ezra had no interest in her, Aria knew that, but all she could think of was Alison throwing herself at Ezra, like Aria knew she was capable of.

"What's the matter?" Ezra asked, picking up on it immediately.

"Nothing," Aria said, seemingly confused.

"There's clearly something wrong."

"I just really hate the idea of Ali flirting with you," Aria admitted, "The way she throws herself at people…What?"

Ezra had gone from a concerned look to a slight smile, like he didn't want to fully commit to smiling, but he couldn't help it.

"Nothing, it's just cute," He replied, "You're jealous."

"I don't get jealous," Aria said, and he chuckled a little bit, "I've never been jealous."

Ezra raised his eyebrows, but it was true, with Jason she had felt unsure, or teased about him – but it was never jealousy. She couldn't deny it that it was jealousy with Ezra, but if a girl ever came on to Jason while she was with him, she didn't pay it much notice. That, and no one really dared to – everyone knew he was hers. She didn't like the feeling, it made her feel like she was crazy why did it matter so much to her? Why did it bug her? Ezra had said no, he had come to her, and warded off Ali. So why did it still feel like she could beam lasers out of her eyes?

"Ok, so maybe I am," Aria admitted, and Ezra nodded, "I don't like it."

"Neither do I," Ezra agreed, then rethought what she had said, "Oh, you mean the jealousy? Well, that's kind of cute – but I want to make something very clear here. I don't like Ali, imagine all the annoyance and anger you have over it, and multiply it times two to be where I am. Because here's this girl, this amazing, beautiful, smart, perfect girl standing right in front of me, and I have to play it cool. Stomach and shelf all the jealousy that I got seeing you with Jason, because he's a nice guy, he's a good guy – I was the one in the wrong. Then deal with her overtly obnoxious, mean girl, friend trying to hit on me and all I want to tell her is to get lost."

"So, what're we going to do?" Aria asked, it had been the elephant in the room up until then, "We clearly… but I don't…."

"You can take as long as you want," He replied, "You just got out of a five year relationship a few hours ago. I want you to be sure you're ready to enter another relationship before we do."

"You were really that jealous of Jason?"

"You're jealous of Ali and I'm not even remotely interested in her," He pointed out and Aria nodded.

"Ezra – I think I need to clear that up with you," Aria said, and Ezra just looked at her to continue, "From the moment you walked into class I've been trying to talk myself into the idea of loving Jason."

"Yeah," Ezra replied, he had gotten that much from her behavior and previous talks.

"I never once had to even think about talking myself into being in love with you," Aria pointed out, and he smiled, "So what're we going to do?"

"It's up to you," He said, "I assume you want there to be a break between the relationships."

"I don't want to hurt Jason any more than I already have," Aria said, and Ezra nodded.

"That's understandable."

"He said he wanted a couple days, to recoup before he wanted to work on being friends," Aria continued, and Ezra nodded.

"He sounded like that was his plan when I spoke with him."

"So, I at least want to wait.. to be official until we're at least talking again," Aria said, and Ezra nodded.

"That's fine."

"But… that really sucks."

"How so?"

"Because it could be weeks," Aria pouted, "I can't wait that long, well I can – because I have to. But damn. Even then, I mean I want to be respectful to Jason and let everyone get used to the idea of us not being together. Jason and I have been functionally over for a while, but were still - but damn…"

"Damn what?" Ezra asked, trying desperately to follow her thought process.

He understood what she was saying. It only made sense that they were respectful of the relationship that just ended, and he knew, had known that he would have to wait for all of that to be dealt with before they would be able to start anything really. He knew what he wanted, he wanted Aria – free and clear, which meant he was more than willing to wait until the coast was clear.

"All I can think about is kissing you," Aria blurted out, "And I feel like an awful person for thinking that, and saying that – but it's been in my head for days, the kiss in the library. I know I should be sad about Jason and all that but-"

"Aria," Ezra's breath was a short chuckle – and then the front door opened.

"Hey sweetie," Ella walked into the room and they could hear Mike heading upstairs to the shower, "Oh, hello Ezra. I wasn't aware anyone was here."

"Ali, Hanna, Spencer, and Em left a little while ago," Aria said, and Ella nodded.

She was used to seeing Ezra around the house; he seemed to be a good friend to her daughter. It had been quite clear to her from day one that he cared very much about Aria. He had been by the house after school to study more than a few times, but she found it a little odd to see him in the living room talking to her daughter the night that her longtime boyfriend had broken up with her. Aria seemed to read her mother's mind and then continued to talk, to try and explain Ezra's presence.

"Ezra heard about Jason and I," Aria told her mother, "He just came by to check on me, lend an ear. He was worried, wanted to talk."

"Ok," said Ella, "Well it is a school night, so you guys should probably wrap it up soon?"

"Yeah," Ezra said, getting up from the couch, and Aria got up too, "My mother will be worrying about me if I'm too much longer."

This was a lie, but a white lie – and Aria knew it too.

"I'll just walk you out to your car," Aria said, "It's the least I can do."

They stepped outside into pitch blackness. The whole neighborhood had gone to sleep, and Aria looked over at Hanna's house. All the lights were off, and Aria looked at her phone as she took it out to use it as a flashlight to make it to Ezra's car – which was in fact silver. It told her that it was almost eleven thirty.

"So," said Ezra as they reached his car, completely out of sight from everyone in complete blackness as Aria put her phone back in her pocket, "How about we hit pause? We don't do anything further, but we don't completely ignore each other either. We just live, we take it so slow that we just pause us until this whole thing passes?"

"I like that idea," Aria said, and Ezra smiled.

"Oh, and one more thing?" Ezra said, leaning in towards her.

"What?"

His only answer was the soft pressure of his lips pressing against hers. She leaned into it just enough to be able to wrap her arms around his neck. Then just as it was starting to be time that one of them took the initiative to deepen the kiss, Ezra pulled away, kissing her forehead as he did so.

"Now we put us on pause. Goodnight, Aria," He said, and she smiled as he got into the driver's seat of his car, "I told Sean I'd drive Toby and Spencer in the morning. He apparently picks them up in the morning. I'll pick you up first?"

"Sure," Aria smiled, as she backed away from the car, "Good night."


	9. Not Fair

A/N: Hey guys… sorry this update took so long…. Love you guys!

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Nine:

**** Two Years Ago ** **

Aria was sitting on the edge of her bed, journaling while Mike was yelling about something downstairs. As he got louder, and their parent's voices raised with his, Aria went over and shut her door so that they were muffled. Then, she was done journaling – she didn't feel like thinking about anything anymore. She flopped down on her bed and let her face just land in her pillow. She rolled over onto her side and snuggled up to her pillow, trying to hold everything in. Then, all of a sudden her window very slowly opened, and suddenly Jason was coming through the window.

"Jason," Aria whispered angrily, "Mom and dad are already pissed about something stupid Mike did. If they find out you're here…"

"They won't," He tried to assure her, "I was walking by, and I heard them. I wanted to check on you – I had to wait til you shut your door, didn't I?"

"Jason," Aria did not sound like she believed him as he wrapped her up in his arms, "They almost caught you last time, you literally had to hide under the bed."

"But they didn't see me," He continued, "Besides, they love me anyways. I'm the golden boy who picks their daughter up at school and drives Mike to practices, remember?"

"Yes but that reputation will be tarnished very quickly once they find out you've been coming in through the window."

"I don't do it that often," He said, leaning in and kissing the top of her head, "I just had to see you."

"Well, now it's time for you to go," Aria said and Jason cocked his head to the side, confused.

"Is everything ok?"

"I'm fine," she replied and Jason rolled his eyes as he walked back over to the window.

"You know, I really hate when you push me away like that," He said, "All I ever want is to be there for you."

"This isn't something you can fix, Jason," Aria told him, following him over to the window and kissing him quickly, "I'm tired, I just want to go to bed, ok?"

"Ok, you'd tell me, right?" He asked, "If something was really wrong?"

"Of course I would," Aria replied, kissing him briefly before he climbed out of the window, and she shut the window, and the blinds, to get ready for bed.

**** Present Day ** **

"Aria," Ella said as Aria walked into the kitchen the next morning, "Why don't I drive you to school today?"

"Thanks mom," She smiled, "But Ezra already offered last night. He's apparently picking up Toby and Spencer too."

"Ok," She said.

Aria grabbed an apple off the table for breakfast, and was out the door before her mother could question her any more. Ezra's car pulled in the driveway, Aria put her apple into her school bag, and walked around to get into the car. Ezra opened the door from the inside and swung it open so that she didn't have to open it herself.

"Good morning, Aria," He said, waiting for her to buckle her seatbelt before handing her a coffee.

"You got me coffee?"

"I did," He said, taking a deep breath, "I thought you might need it to get through today."

"Thanks," Aria smiled as Ezra started backing out of the driveway.

They went and got Spencer and Toby, then headed towards school. There were no questions as to why Ezra had picked Aria up, there was no need for it. It only made sense to everyone that now that Aria and Jason were over, that Aria would be driven by someone else. It made sense to her too, it just felt weird. She was still trying to figure out how she was supposed to act when she actually got to school. They were in the same group of friends – should she avoid the whole group – but wait Jason was taking the blame…

"You ok, Aria?" Spencer also seemed to be thinking of the logistics of Aria's day, just with a little less insider information.

"I'll be fine," Aria replied, sipping her coffee.

"Well we're all here for you," Toby said and Aria nodded.

"Yeah," Spencer said, "And you don't have to take him back – no matter what Ali says."

"I don't think he'll be asking me back," Aria said, "Granted I don't particularly want him back. I just wanna move on."

"So that's what you'll do," Spencer said, smiling, "And we'll help you."

"Thanks," Aria said, as Ezra pulled into the high school parking lot, "But I don't want to alienate him, or be mean."

"You're such a good sport," Spencer said, "Because I want to destroy him – but we'll go with your plan, ok?"

Aria took a deep breath and Ezra gave her a concerned look.

"Are you sure you're ready?" He asked, and Aria nodded.

They all got out of the car at the same time, and Aria couldn't help but wonder if Spencer, Emily, and Ali would be as understanding if they knew the real story of what happened. She took another deep breath as she and Ezra fell into step behind Spencer and Toby as they started walking over towards the group. Ben, Sean, Emily, Hanna, Ali, and Jason were already standing over there, and Aria stopped. She didn't know if Jason would want her to go all the way over. Would it be too painful for him? She exchanged looks with Ezra, and then stopped walking.

"What're you doing?" He asked, and Spencer and Toby paused too.

"What's up?" Spencer asked, "You have every right to.."

"I know," Aria cut her off, "But maybe I should just go to class early…"

"I'll go with you," Ezra offered, and Toby shook his head.

"No," Spencer said, "C'mon you're both coming with us over to stand with the group."

"Hey there, hot lips," Ali said, prancing right over to Ezra.

"Alison," Ezra said firmly.

"Leave the guy alone," Jason piped up.

"Don't be pathetic," Toby said and she glared at him.

"It's not pathetic if it's true."

"Wait, what?" Spencer looked at Ezra, and he shook his head.

"Nothing happened," Ezra told her, then switched to have his audience be purely Ali, "And it never will."

"Whatever you say, cutie," Alison smiled knowingly at Ezra, who looked like he was going to be sick, "Girls, lockers."

Aria's day only seemed to get worse from there. It seemed that Alison had completely placed Ezra onto the pedestal that she had previously reserved purely for Ian. It didn't even seem to matter to her whether or not Ian was around anymore, or what exactly it was she was saying to Ezra. Jason was acting as part of the group, and walking with them, but completely unresponsive to Aria, it was the first time in years her best friend wasn't there to cheer her up when she needed him. She understood, he had to block her out for his own good, and she really had no right to need him – but the transition was hard. What was worse was Chemistry, she had had to run to her locker, and Ezra had gone to save her seat – but Alison had stolen it - - again.

"Who is it that's supposed to be sitting here, Ezzy?" Ali asked and Ezra sighed as Aria walked into class.

"Aria usually does," He said, a little more than annoyed.

"Well, look at her," Ali said, nodding towards Aria as she walked in, "She's a walking Zombie after my brother and her broke up – she won't be much fun to talk to today anyways."

"It's fine," Aria said, even though it wasn't, "I'll just sit in front of you guys."

"Are you sure?" Ali checked, in her so irritatingly false kindness voice.

"It's fine," Aria said, and then had to deal with hearing Alison making passes at him for an hour.

After class, Aria went to her locker to drop her books off before heading to gym. Ezra seemed to have escaped Ali's clutches and walked over to Aria's locker. His pout did nothing if not match Aria's.

"How is it that this has been the suckiest day ever, and it's not even lunch?" Aria asked.

"I don't think I can even apologize enough for last period," He said and Aria shook her head.

"Don't worry about it."

"Well I'm going to," He replied, "Today's rough enough on you without having to deal with that too."

"I just want this day to be over."

"It can be," Ezra gave her a mischievous smile.

"What do you mean?"

"Let's cut out," He replied, "Think about it. We have, gym, lunch, History and health left. Health'll be awkward and miserable. There's really no point to being here anymore. Let's go."

"Go where?" The more Aria thought about it, the more she liked the idea.

"I've got an idea," Ezra smiled, and they headed for the door.

They snuck back into the parking lot, and hopped in Ezra's car. He started the car right up, and drove away from the school before either of them thought twice about what they were doing.

"So now do you want tell me where we're going?" Aria asked, and Ezra shook his head.

"No," He said, "But are you hungry for lunch?"

"Yeah, but I brought today," Aria said, looking down at her bag and Ezra nodded.

"Hey, I did too," He replied, smiling, "That'll work perfect."

"What will work perfect?"

"Relax," He said, chuckling adorably, "I have a plan."

"Please tell me?"

"I'm not going to tell you, it's a surprise," He said, and Aria pouted, "Don't pout, it's not fair."

"How is it not fair?"

"It's exploiting my feelings for you."

"Now _that's_ not fair," Aria pointed out.

"Right," Ezra replied as he pulled onto a dirt road.

"Ezra, seriously where are you taking me?" Aria asked, looking around, worrying slightly at the fact that she had no idea where they were.

"Relax, I found this this summer," He said, "You'll realize where we are in a minute."

Ezra took a right turn onto an even more deserted road, and Aria had to remind herself several times not to ask again where it was that they were going, then suddenly she knew. She knew exactly where they were, they were by the lake that they hung out at every summer. They hadn't even left the town, and they really weren't anywhere where she didn't know where they were. Ezra had just taken her to the other side of the lake, a beach that no one went to, mostly because no one realized that it was there. They could see it from the other side, but barely registered that someone could actually be over there.

"A picnic on the sand, Miss Montgomery?" Ezra proposed and Aria chuckled as they got out of his car.

He went around to the trunk and grabbed a blanket out of the trunk.

"You planned for this?" Aria asked and he shook his head.

"No, it's just one of the few things mom insisted on putting in the trunk for me," He replied, as they headed out to the sand, and he laid it down for them to sit on, "A first aid kit, a windshield scraper, a little shovel, in case of snow, and a blanket just on the off chance that I get stranded somewhere and I'm cold."

"Your mom sounds like a worrier," Aria noted as they sat down on the blanket, and pulled out their lunches.

"Not really," Ezra said, unwrapping his sandwich, "She doesn't really show feelings and emotions all too well. That, the making me keep all that stuff in the back of the car, is her showing that she cares so she doesn't actually have to tell me to drive carefully."

"Yikes," Aria said and Ezra nodded.

"You get used to it," He smiled, "But, all of you guys' parents here in Rosewood? Make me seriously jealous."

"How so? We all have helicopter parents," Aria pointed out, "All they do it meddle."

"I'd rather they meddle than just not pay attention," He smiled, knowing that he should change the subject, "So how much of a cow is everyone going to have once they realized we ditched?"

"I'm surprised our phones aren't blowing up," Aria said.

"I left mine in the car," Ezra admitted.

"Me too," Aria smiled, and Ezra's heart soared.

They locked eyes for what felt like eternity, but had to be about a minute. The moment was so perfect, they were together, with no one else around sitting by a lake eating a makeshift picnic lunch. They were having a good time, talking, and getting to know each other a little more – but all Aria could think of was all the things that would make it so much better. Like how she should be lying in Ezra's arms, and their food should be untouched – not that they weren't hungry – but because they didn't care that they were. She wanted his mouth on hers, their tongues entangled and Ezra's arms holding her tight to him.

"We are going to suck at just being friends, huh?" She said as he broke eye contact, on purpose.

"Aria, I don't think we were ever good at being friends," He grinned and she chuckled.

"No, I guess not," She breathed, she wasn't hungry – she put her food back into her backpack.

"So what was bothering you so much today?" He asked curiously.

"Honestly? Mostly Ali," Aria said and Ezra nodded, "I mean, it was weird not talking to Jason, and things being – different. But it's to be expected after such a routine that we had going. But Ali, flirting with you like that all morning, right in front of me. And me not being able to say a word – it was driving me nuts."

"So you're slightly thrown off by the change in dynamic, then whacked with Ali's behavior?" Ezra summarized and Aria nodded, "Well, you could say something, if you wanted to."

"Oh, the chaos that would start," Aria commented and Ezra shook his head as he put the remains of his lunch away too, then lying on his side.

"Aria, why do you care so much about what everyone else thinks?" He asked, "Shouldn't it matter what you think? How you feel? What you want? How you want to live?"

"You really are new to Rosewood," Aria replied, and Ezra nodded, "They're my family, it does matter what they think, and what they want, how they feel… besides it's not like we're together. You're not mine, I can't dictate who flirts with you and who doesn't."

"Aria, the only reason we're not is because you wanted there to be a gap," Ezra reminded her, "And you most certainly can dictate that, if you want to. You have me, Aria. I'm not going anywhere, and I'll wait as long as I have to in order for us to be ok with you."

"Us is ok with me," Aria said, turning on her side on her half of the blanket so that she was mirroring her, "Ezra, I want to be with you more than anything. I just—"

"Stop," He cut her off, "C'mere."

"What?"

"C'mere," He replied motioning for her to come closer to him, and she did.

He opened up his arms, and she snuggled up right into them, my face right up against his chest. It felt better than she could have ever imagined, to have Ezra cuddling up to her so softly. She could feel her heart, which had been beating three times as fast as it usually did since he had arrived slowly slow down to the point where, if she was feeling any less peaceful, she would be worried it would just stop.

"Aria," He whispered into her ear, running his hand over her back soothingly, "You are the only girl for me. I am hopelessly in love with you, and want nothing more than to be everything and anything you'll ever need. That is, if you will allow me to be."

"Ezra," She pulled her head away from his chest to look up into his face questioningly.

"Aria," He breathed, "Please, be with me. We'll figure the rest of it out – but, please. I know you feel this, right now, how perfect it is when it's just us."

"Ezra, I'm in love with you," Aria said it with conviction, "And, I do want to be with you, yes. Just hold me in your arms like this forever."

"Already arranged," He smiled as he leaned in and kissed her forehead.

"Oh thank God," Aria smiled as Ezra rotated onto his back and Aria moved so that she was curled around his side, "You do realize who ridiculously comfy you are, right?"

"Really?" He chuckled as he kissed the top of her head.

"Along with being ridiculously sexy," She said as she turned her head so she could make eye contact with him.

"You are incomprehensibly beautiful," He smiled crookedly, "Perfect, from your head to your toes. I don't think there're sufficient adjectives in the English Language to describe you, but I'm sure that won't stop me from trying. Everything about you drives me crazy."

"In a good way, I hope," Aria smiled and he leaned down and kissed her softly.

"A very good way," He replied, pulling away.

"How're we going to approach this?" Aria asked, and Ezra's face was shadowed with confusion, "Like telling people about us. I just broke up –"

"I don't see any reason for anyone to know just yet," Ezra told her, as she sat up, and he did too – pulling her back into his arms again, "We can keep this to ourselves for a little while, until you're ready, or whoever you're waiting to be ready is ready. Then, we'll slowly and gradually show it off. Not throw it in anyone's face, not overtly. Just gradually show that we're together until it's just a thing."

"And you're ok with that?" Aria asked, "Keeping us private for a while?"

"I don't think I could keep it under wraps forever," He said, "But for a little while – I don't see a problem with it. Plus, it'll be nice to have a little while where it's just us – like this."

"It will be," Aria agreed, and Ezra leaned in and kissed her again, "Wait, can we tell some people?"

"Sure," He replied, "We can tell whoever you want."

"Ok," Aria said and he smiled.

"Now can we just lay here, for a little while?" He asked and she smiled as she snuggled her face into his chest.

Within minutes, Aria was fast asleep, and Ezra got the distinct impression that she had not gotten adequate sleep in a long time. So, he stroked the side of her head and ran his fingers very carefully, very soothingly through her gorgeous hair.

"Shit!" Ezra said hours later as he jolted awake, the sun was starting to go down over the water – he had fallen asleep.

"Wha- oh crap!" Aria slowly rose as they both looked panicked over the water at the setting sun.

They packed up as quickly as they could and threw it all in the backseat of Ezra's car, and as Ezra drove, Aria checked her phone.

_Where'd you go? Did you ditch? ~Hanna_

_Did you and Ezra bail on school for the day? You seriously need to hook me up, Aria ~Ali _

_Where are you guys? I'm assuming you're together… ~Toby _

_Aria? Where are you? You should be heading home soon ~Mom_

_I'm really starting to worry, please call me, and please be home soon – we need to talk! ~Mom_

"My mom's pissed," Arua said and Ezra nodded.

"Call her," He prompted and Aria shook her head as Ezra pulled onto her street.

"I'll be home before she picks up," Aria told him as he pulled into her driveway.

"I'll text you later?" He checked and Aria nodded.

"I'll text you when it's safe," Aria smiled, and he nodded as she hopped out of his car.


	10. Can't Go Home

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Ten:

**** Two Years ago ** **

Aria and her family were on vacation, up in the mountains – to get away from the little town of Rosewood for a while. Everyone had just gotten onto Summer break, and Byron had only a couple weeks before the summer semester started up. Aria was just mortified that they were dragging her away from Jason and her friends for an entire week without even consulting her. They were going to spend the week at Jason and Ali's parent's house in New Jersey, on the beach. She couldn't believe that her parents were dragging her to Vermont instead. It wasn't like they wouldn't be chaperoned, Mr. and Mrs. DiLaurentis were going to be there – along with from what she understood, their Aunt and Uncle.

_Hope you have some fun up in the mountains, I'll be missing you down here :( ~Jason._

_I miss you too. I can't believe they're making me go with them. I just want to scream, I'm stuck here in the mountains with mom, dad, and Mike while you're all down having fun on the beach…~Aria._

"Aria, get off of your phone," Byron said as he walked into the room, she was supposed to be helping Mike pick out good clothes for hiking.

"Dad, seriously," Aria said, "You can stick me on a bus, I can be in New Jersey in a few hours. I bet Mrs. DiLaurentis would pick me up at the bus stop."

"Aria, you're off with your friends more than you're with your own family," He said, "I'm sorry the DiLaurentis' trip and our trip fell onto the same week as our family vacation, but Aria, you're fourteen years old. You go with your own family before you go with your boyfriend's."

"Dad, you're being so unfair," Aria said, "Even Emily's parents let her go."

"That's it, I don't want to hear another word about it," He replied, and he headed out of the door without giving Aria another chance to speak.

"Maybe I just like Jason and Ali's family more," Aria mumbled under her breath, and she turned around to see a mortified look on Mike's face.

"Did you mean that?" He asked, and Aria's heart crumbled to see her brother's breaking in his eyes.

"Of course not, Mike," Aria assured him, running over and giving him a big hug, "I'm just mad at mom and dad, and I miss my friends. Mike, I wouldn't trade you, or mom or dad for anyone. No matter how mad I get, or whatever I might say."

"Emily's parents really let her go?" He asked, surprised and Aria nodded.

"And her boyfriend Ben's going, too," Aria said pointedly, and Mike's eyebrows shot right up into his hairline, "C'mon, let's get dressed to go hiking before dad comes down and yells again."

"He really has no right," Mike said, "I think about trading him out for someone else, all the time."

"Mike, why would you say something like that?"

"Dad's more of a liar than you could ever realize," Mike informed her, and she furrowed her brow.

"You kids ready to go?" Ella asked as she walked in and they nodded as Mike pulled on his hiking boots.

"I miss my friends, mom," Aria said and Ella nodded.

"I know, but this trip is important to your father."

"I don't see why we owe him anything," Mike was just as upset as Aria, his friends had set up a neighborhood basketball tournament for the week – that he had to miss.

"C'mon, let's go," Ella was beginning to loose her patients with her children.

**** Present Day ** **

Aria took a deep breath and walked into the house, she could hear her parents and Mike in the dining room. She was late for dinner, she dropped her bag off at the bottom of the stairs, and then headed in towards the kitchen. She very deftly slid into her place at the table, and then noticed that everyone else was just about done.

"Nice to see you've decided to join us," Ella raised her eyebrows at her daughter, Aria looked to her father – who looked simply furious, "Mike, why don't you go get your shower early and start in on your homework now that we know your sister's at least alive."

"She won't be for long," Mike said, looking from one parent to the other, then giving Aria a sympathetic look before he headed out of the kitchen.

"I'm sorry," Aria said, before her parents could start in on her, "I lost track of time, and I was almost home by the time I got your messages."

"Where were you?" Ella asked, "We were so worried."

"We almost called the cops," Byron replied, and Aria rolled her eyes – her father always had a passion for the dramatics.

"We decided to call Hanna instead," Ella said, "She said she hadn't seen you since second period at school. She said you cut classes before lunch."

"I having a hard time at school today," Aria admitted, "What with Jason, and Ali's being – less than helpful. Thought I don't think it was on purpose – but, I was having a really bad day and Ezra found me before gym, so we decided to cut out. He let me rant to him – and we just lost track of the time."

"Aria, if you wanted to stay home from school, you could have just asked," Byron said, instantly a little less angry – Aria wondered if Ezra's name had been the thing to cool him down a little bit.

"I knew I shouldn't have let you go to school today," Ella said, in that condescending parental tone, which caused every teenager's eyes to roll.

"Mom, it's not that big of a deal," Aria said and Byron nodded.

"Ella, let's cut her some slack," Byron said and Ella sighed.

"Fine," She said, sounding more defeated than anything, "Who is this boy anyways? I didn't know you two were that close."

"He's over here almost every day after school," Byron said, "They study together, they're friends. He moved here over the summer. He's a good kid."

"A good kid that got our daughter to skip half the day of school today," Ella shot back disbelievingly, "Aria, what happened with you and Jason?"

"I don't want to talk about it, mom," Aria's temper suddenly rose with Ella's attitude, "We were together for five years!"

"I know that boy," Ella said, "He wouldn't throw that away – and he adores you."

"We were together too long, mom," Aria shrugged, "And don't attack Ezra like that. I was having a crappy day, he noticed – he offered to take me out of it. You wouldn't be half as mad if I disappeared with Toby or one of my other guy friends."

"We've known Toby and your other guy friends much longer," Ella pointed out, "And, we didn't even know that you were with anyone until you told us. So the anger isn't really anything to do with him."

"Then why're we having this conversation?" Aria asked and Ella sighed angrily.

"Aria, why don't you go to your room?" Byron suggested, not unkindly, "You're not going out tonight, and I think that'll be sufficient punishment for worrying us."

"Ok," Aria nodded, she had homework anyways – she headed for the stairs

"Sufficient punishment?" Ella seemed upset, and Aria stopped halfway up the stairs to the second floor.

"Ella," Byron said, "Think about it, can't we cut her a little slack? This is the first time she's done this, and even if it's not – the cutting school – it isn't hurting her grades. She's going fantastically, and she always has. She had an off day, and a friend helped her out. The making us worry, when has she ever done that before? If she makes a habit of it, that's a totally different story, but she's a teenager, Ella. I think we forget that sometimes…"

Aria took a deep breath, realizing her father clearly had her mother under control. She popped her head into Mike's room quickly on the way to her own just to say goodnight before going into her room and shutting her door. She put her school bag down near the foot of her bed, and then flopped down on her bed, taking her phone out to text Hanna and Ali back. Hanna was the easy part, it was Ali that she knew she had to restrain herself on. Her immediate reaction was to text her back with something remarkably similar to 'He's mine, back off bitch. Not every guy that you lay eyes on is under your control.' –But something told her actually sending that out would be a problem. After several different drafts, she decided it would be best just to ignore the comment all together.

_Sorry, I was having a rough day. Ezra and I headed out early. I'll talk to you tomorrow. ~ Aria._

Ezra could almost feel the vibes coming off Aria's house as he dropped her off. He had a feeling that her parents were less than pleased that she was arriving home from 'school' so late. Knowing what he did of them, he assumed that they knew by now by talking to one of the girls that Aria hadn't been in school most of the day. He took a deep breath and backed out of the driveway as soon as Aria disappeared into the house. He stopped a few blocks away to check his text messages. He only had two, both from Toby.

_Dude, where did you two go? This is not classified as flying under the radar, I hope you realize. ~Toby_

_Hey man, you should stop by the house later. Whenever you're done hanging out with Aria. ~Toby. _

_I'm done for the night now, I'm coming. ~ Ezra_

He didn't have text from his mother so he almost didn't bother to tell her where he was, but then he thought better of it. He texted her quickly to tell her when he'd probably be home, and not to bother waiting up – not that she would. He looked over his shoulder, then pulled away from the curb and headed towards Toby's place. He pulled in the driveway to realize that Spencer's car was also in the driveway.

"Hey," He said, walking up to the porch where Toby, Spencer, and Ali were sitting.

"Where'd you go today?" Ali asked, "After Chem?"

"Aria was having a rough day," He told her simply, "Understandable, considering. We went and hung out instead, she ranted a bit and then I drove her home. She didn't want to have to deal with everyone just yet. She had thought she was ready, but apparently not."

"That was sweet of you," Ali commented and Ezra shrugged, "You're such a good friend."

"I went to meet her for gym and she was a wreck," He said, "It seemed like the only viable option. I wasn't going to let her suffer there all day."

"You're always so thoughtful," Ali was looking at him doe eyed, and he shifted awkwardly.

"Anyways," He decided that conversation was done, "Toby what's up? I got your texts."

"Finally," He chuckled as Spencer got up from the swing next to him, "Where're you going?"

"I have to be home, I have a test tomorrow," Spencer announced, and she pulled her keys out of her pocket, "C'mon Ali."

"You can go, Spence," Ali said, "I'll just get a ride home with Ezzy."

"Ah, actually I wasn't going to go that way," Ezra said, inwardly panicking, as his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He checked it before he did anything else.

_Hey there, adorable. What're you up to? ~Aria _

_At Toby's for a few minutes before I head home. I hope your parents weren't too hard on you ~Ezra_

"So I can't have a ride?" Ali asked and Ezra shook his head.

"Sorry, I can't," He lied, it wasn't that he couldn't – but he didn't want to.

"Fine," Ali seemed particularly put out as she skipped down the stairs and followed Spencer to her car.

He sat on the top step of the porch, leaning against the railing and facing Toby. Neither of them said a word until they heard the car start up and back out of the driveway, and then even then it took them a few minutes to speak, just making sure that they were really gone. Toby shook his head, smiling as a huge grin came across his friend's face.

"Did you guys have a nice time?" Toby asked and Ezra nodded.

"Once she was done being upset about Ali trying to get my attention," He replied and Toby nodded.

"I can imagine that would be obnoxious."

"It's more than that," Ezra said, searching his vocabulary for a better word, "It's asinine. And, it's almost ruined my chances with Aria."

"You should have seen her at lunch when we realized you two left together," Toby said, "She was ready to karate chop anything within her range. Of course when Ali's angry she doesn't actually show anger…"

"It's too human for her?" Ezra offered and Toby chuckled.

"No, she just gets really scary," Toby said, "Like you don't even want to see. It's not pretty."

"How was Jason?" Ezra asked nervously.

"He didn't say much," Toby breathed, "He didn't seem particularly hurt, and he actually told Ali off for being petty. Which was when I chimed in explaining that Aria had looked like she was going to be sick all morning, probably just nervous and upset over recent events – we talked her down."

"And I talked Aria down," Ezra looked up at the ceiling.

"Was she really that upset?" Toby asked.

"She feels off because her life's just – different now," He told him, "Plus she's pretty angry herself with Ali for all the crap she's been trying to pull with me."

"Aw, she's jealous?" Toby asked and Ezra nodded, "Did you tell her to join the club? The way she paraded Jason around you – towards the end."

"She wasn't parading," Ezra could feel his face turning red as his protective senses went into overdrive, "She was trying to convince herself that she was in love with her boyfriend. She did her best to not let me be around when she was trying, too."

"Sorry," Toby said, throwing up his hands in surrender, "So what'd you guys do today?"

"I took her out to this back entrance beach for the lake," Ezra told him, "We had a picnic and I let her rant."

"So what's going on with you guys?" Toby asked and Ezra smiled.

"We're in love," Ezra shrugged.

"So are you together? What?"

"Ok, if I tell you this you have to keep it to yourself," Ezra looked at his friend suspiciously.

"Hey, I haven't told anyone anything," He said, "Why would I start now?"

"We're keeping it secretive, for now," Ezra said, and Toby smirked, "Very on the down low. We were going to give it a while, let Jason recoup, be respectful. But, we didn't want to wait – call us impatient. So, we're keeping it under wraps until we can very slowly just become more and more public."

"You know at this point Ali's never going to accept you being with anyone other than her," Toby said and Ezra nodded.

"I know, and I think Aria does too," Ezra admitted, as his phone went off again, "And it really has nothing to do with Ali. Neither of us want Jason to be hurt by it any more than he already has. A byproduct of that is Ali has a chance to change her mind – but we won't be waiting for that to happen."

Ezra looked down at his phone and smiled, it was another text from Aria.

_So my mom went mental, she found out we bailed out of school. Dad calmed her down…. I think my dad approves… not that he knows… but…~Aria_

_Well I hope so, I like your dad too. I haven't even been home yet, but I can't imagine mom's all too worried. By the way, I told Toby… ~Ezra._

"Is that Aria?" Toby asked and Ezra nodded.

"Her mom found out that she skipped," Ezra said, still looking down at his phone for a second before locking it, "Anyways, sounds like her dad soothed things over."

"Her dad loves you," Toby commented, "But her mom was like in love with Jason and her, has been since we were kids."

"I'm getting that feeling," He said, and Toby nodded, "Well, I should get home."

"Yeah," Toby sighed, as Ezra got up and stretched, "Drive safe."

"Will do," Ezra called over his shoulder as he headed towards his car.

He sighed as he turned the key to start the car. He wanted, for some sick thrill, to at least drive by Aria's house. The problem was, in order to do so, the ride brought him right by the DiLaurentis' house. He made a split second decision as he backed out of the driveway that it was dark enough outside for him to get past Ali without her noticing that he had lied to her. Either way, what'd it matter? Maybe she'd lay off if she realized he had gone out of his way not to be left alone with her.

He was driving down the road when the peripheral light from his headlights caught a shadow walking along the side walk. Ezra slowed down a little, as to not go zipping by them, and the person turned. He was most than a little surprised to see that it was Jason walking alone on the side of the street, at night. He slowed so that he was barely rolling, right next to Jason as he walked.

"Hey, whatcha doing?" Ezra asked, rolling down his window, "What're you doing out here?"

"Nothing, just walking," Jason said, looking at him as he talked.

"Can I give you a ride somewhere?" Ezra asked and Jason shook his head.

"You have Aria now, you don't have to pretend to like me anymore," Jason gave him a weak smile, and Ezra furrowed his brow.

"Jason, that was the killer of it all," Ezra tried to explain, "I was never pretending to like hanging out with you. I hope..."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it – I'm just…"

"It's ok," Ezra said, "I understand. You sure I can't bring you anywhere? Home, for example?"

"I'm pathetic," Jason said, and Ezra realized what was wrong with him – he was severely drunk.

"You been drinking at all, Jason?" I asked and he nodded.

"A little," He replied, "Ali was keeping on telling me I should go ask her out again. And I know I shouldn't because she loves you, but she's driving me nuts. I can't tell her that, because that would hurt you guys, and –"

"Jason, get in the car," Ezra prompted, there was no way he was going to let him keep stumbling around.

"No, I'm fine – dude," Jason said, and Ezra parked his car and hopped out.

"Jason, c'mon," Ezra said, standing on the sidewalk with him.

"I can't go home," Jason said, allowing Ezra to usher him towards his passenger seat.

"Why can't you go home?" Ezra asked as he opened his door for him.

"Ali, she's gotten mom and dad in on it," Jason said, "Every time I walk into a room it's Aria this, Aria that. I can't take it. I was barely strong enough to let her go, this isn't something I was prepared for. And I'm patheric because I miss her, already. And I'm extra pathetic because I'm now ranting drunkenly to the guy she's in love with about how much it hurts…"

"Fine, you can crash in the guest room at my place if you want," Ezra said, feeling a pang of guilt, "There's no reason you have to stay away from Aria. If you want to be her friend, I'm sure she wants to be yours too. She missed you, as her friend today."

"Why are you helping me?" Jason asked as Ezra helped him into the car.

"Why were you so nice to me?"

"Because I love Aria."

"We have that in common," Ezra said and Jason promptly passed out as Ezra buckled his seat belt for him.


	11. I Understand

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Eleven:

** Two Years Ago **

Ezra took a deep breath, then walked into his family's upper class New York Apartment. His brother Sam wouldn't be home yet, and he didn't want him to be. It wasn't that he had particularly in love with the latest girlfriend his brother had stolen from him, he was just annoyed, and fed up. He never had a chance to fall in love with any of them because any girl that he managed to charm into dating him, no more than two weeks later was breaking up with him for Sam. What if he had actually loved them? He hadn't, but what if he had? Would his brother even care? Or would all his brother care that he had what Ezra wanted? Took what he had?

"Ezra, is that you?" My father was sitting up in the study, mom had gone to visit her sister in New Jersey for the weekend.

"Yeah," Ezra said, hanging up his coat and walking in to see him, "Have a nice night?"

"Frozen dinner," He shrugged, looking up from his book ,"Where's Penny?"

"Ask Sam when he gets home."

"Again?" He asked and Ezra nodded.

"I don't think I'm going to even bother anymore," Ezra said, "There's no one else I really find all that appealing, and even if I did – the best way to keep them from Sam would be to not even bother anyways."

"I can talk to him when he gets in, if you'd like," He offered and Ezra shook his head.

"Don't bother," Ezra said, slipping his shoes off and sitting down in a chair next to his father, "What're you reading?"

"The Tempest," He replied and Ezra nodded, "It's one of my favorites."

"Shakespeare," Ezra nodded, "It's good."

"You've read it?" His dad replied.

"Dad, I've read all of the books in here – a few times," He smiled, and so did his father.

"That's my writer, one day, boy."

"Maybe."

"I've read some of the things you've hidden under your bed, Ezra," He said seriously, "You've got it."

"Thanks, dad."

There was a loud banging, and an even rowdier attempt at kicking off one's shoes that announced Sam getting home a few minutes later. Ezra rolled his eyes as Sam came in like a hurricane.

"Ez, don't be a sore loser, man," Sam said as he stumbled into the study.

"I'm going to bed, Sam," Ezra said, more than slightly put out, "I'll see you in the morning."

"Oh, c'mon, Ezra," Sam started to chuckle, "Game well played."

"Why do you constantly feel the need to go into competition with me?" Ezra's brain was just about exploding, "Why don't you find your own life and stop trying to hijack mine? That's three girls, Sam. And I don't move all that fast. You're going to run out of girls to take from me, because I'm not even going to bother anymore. And don't even bother trying to say you're my brother."

"Ezra," Sam said, as Ezra took off up the stairs, and Sam took off after him, "C'mon I didn't do anything to you. All this over Penny? C'mon, we're brothers. What have I ever done to you?"

"Just go away, Sam," Ezra said, irritatedly.

**** Present Day ** **

Ezra woke up extra early the next day and poured coffee into a disposable travel mug, and threw a couple aspirin onto a plate with a muffin from the basket his mother kept in the kitchen, then walked out to the living room. He had helped Jason into the house, but that was about as far as they got. Jason had passed out on the couch before Ezra had had a chance to get him into the guest room that he was told would double as Sam's room when he eventually came to visit.

"Jason, time to get up," Ezra said, setting the coffee down in front of him, and handing him the pills.

"Thanks," Jason said, one hand to his head as he sat up, "Thanks – for all of this."

"I lied, last night," Ezra said, and Jason raised his eye brows, "It's not just because I'm in love with Aria. It's because I know what it's like to lose someone special to someone else."

"Seriously? You?" Jason asked as he stood up, and sipped his coffee.

"Yeah," Ezra nodded as he led him outside, "I'll run you to your place before I come back and eat."

"Thanks," Jason said as they headed towards Ezra's car, "Girls have been tripping over themselves since you showed up. It wasn't like that back in New York."

Ezra took a deep breath as they climbed into the car, Sam wasn't a subject he liked to discuss with anyone – particularly someone like Jason, who didn't really like him all too much. He had barely shared with Aria about Sam, all she knew was that I didn't particularly like him as a person. He was his brother, so he didn't really have a choice in that, but other than that he tried not to associate with him much. Hence why after the divorce he had opted to move with mom rather than stay with dad. But, he knew how important it was that Jason knew what he had gone through with Sam, and how he hated himself for taking Aria from him. The only way he slept at night was the knowledge that he was in fact in love with Aria, as opposed to seeing her as a disposable object. Jason didn't say much once he had finished, and Ezra dropped him off before heading back to get ready.

"You were all ready out this morning?" His mom questioned him as he walked back into the kitchen.

"Yeah, Jason crashed here last night, I had to drive him back so he could get ready for school," Ezra replied and she nodded.

"Is it true he broke up with Aria?" She was always looking for the juiciest bit of gossip, and he rolled his eyes as be got himself a bowl of cereal.

"He did."

"Why?" She asked as he stood in front of her, eating his cereal.

"Honestly?" Ezra made a quick decision telling his mother the truth would not be a good idea, "No, nevermind. I don't know."

"Of course you do," She replied and Ezra nodded.

"I do," He confirmed.

"Have you talked to her?" she asked and he nodded.

"Spent the better half of the day with her," He replied, "Then I found Jason walking around alone on my way home, so I picked him up. His family's giving him crap for breaking up with her – which is completely unfair."

"Because he wasn't the one who broke up with her?" She asked, "She broke up with him for you."

"No, he broke up with her," He said, wanting nothing more than to escape his mother, "Are we done having this conversation now? I have to pick Aria and Hanna up for school. Hanna's boyfriend had practice before school."

"Yes, go ahead Lancelot," She smirked knowingly and he rolled his eyes.

"I'm not Lancelot," He replied, "And Aria is definitely no Guinevere."

"It was Camelot, and you're Lancelot," She was teasing him now.

"It's not like that," Ezra said simply, and he went out the door, ignoring his mother's cat calls after him.

He hopped into his car, and headed over towards Aria's place without even having to think about his route. He pulled into the driveway, and parked the car. He took a deep breath, and then got out of the car. Of all the enemies he had in the making, Aria's mother wasn't one that he was going to accept as one. He knocked on the front door and smiled as Ella came to the door.

"Ezra," She seemed surprised, but not pleasantly to see him standing there.

"Hi, just thought I'd come in and say hi," He replied, then continued when Ella looked confused, "I'm driving Aria to school."

"Driving Aria _to _ school?" She checked, and Ezra nodded, smiling uncomfortably.

"I'm really sorry," He said, "I should have come in and apologized directly yesterday. It was my fault we were so late, and it was my idea to cut out of school. She just looked so miserable, I had to do something."

"You're not sorry at all about yesterday," Ella commented and Ezra swallowed audibly.

"I'm sorry you were upset," He replied honestly and Ella nodded.

"I know what you're doing," Ella said, "You've had your eye on Aria since you showed up. And now Jason's gone and done something stupid…"

"Mom," Aria said, she had been standing there for the majority of Ella's latest comment.

"Aria," she smiled, and Aria rolled her eyes.

"I think you owe Ezra an apology," Aria said and Ella turned to Ezra.

"I'm sorry," She said, only to appease her daughter.

"And for the record, mom?" Aria said, "I hope you can keep this to yourself because we're trying to keep it on the down low for Jason's benefit. But, the reason Jason and I broke up? It was because I fell in love with Ezra, and Jason knew it. We both _decided_ to break up. Jason just offered to take the blame because it would be easier for Ezra and I. And all of this has very little to do with Ezra except for the fact that he was put into an awful situation, through no fault of his own. I should have broken up with Jason when I first started to think that we were just comfortable. He was in love, but all I was was comfortable…"

"Aria," Ezra spoke up, flashing her a panicked look – he didn't want to be the cause of any fights with her mom, "Shouldn't we be leaving for school? We still have to grab Hanna."

"I already texted her," Aria told him, and he nodded.

"Ezra!" Byron said happily as he walked over, "Good morning, are you here to bring Aria to school?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good man," Byron smiled, and Ezra returned it weakly.

"I think I see Hanna coming out of her house," Aria said and Ezra nodded, letting her leave first, and then following her out.

"Please don't start a war with your mom over me," Ezra said as they walked to his car as Hanna walked across the street.

"I wasn't the one who started it," Aria said and Ezra nodded, as they got to their respective car doors.

Hanna slipped into the backseat, and Ezra drove them all to school. He parked near the back, and then they followed Hanna up and towards the group. Ezra exchanged looks with Aria as they slowed down slightly – almost like there was reverse magnet telling them to turn around. Aria smiled weakly over at him and he grinned as they continued to follow Hanna.

"C'mon, Ezra!" Jason called, noticing that they had slowed slightly, "You wanna play pick up with us after school?"

"Ah, sure," Ezra replied, more than scared as he and Aria got to the group.

"Good, it'll be fun," Toby said, smiling reassuringly.

"So that means we get a girls afternoon?" Ali smiled, "No boyfriends pulling my friends away?"

"No, I guess you can have 'em for a few hours," Ben teased, chuckling as he threw an arm around Emily's shoulders.

"Thanks, Ben," Emily seemed less than pleased as she removed his arm from around her, Ezra had to look down to his shoes to keep from chuckling.

He didn't understand why Emily and Ben were still together, they seemed miserable together. He looked over at Ali, and she gave him an awful, stomach turning all-knowing type of smile. He took an involuntary step back, there was just something about Alison that gave him the creeps. The way she ran the group like they were all some weird live version dolls of hers. Ezra took comfort that he was only there for Aria. The fact that he was building relationships with people, Toby, Jason – and picking his own friends rather than just following as Ali said.

"Ez," Sean said, and he nodded towards him – letting him know that he was listening.

Sean and Ben were examples of people within the group he wasn't too keen on keeping up friendships with. Other than the way Ben looked at anything female that moved, including Aria – there were just a different type of person than he was used to. He wasn't about to try and convince anyone that his lack enthusiasm about them had nothing to do with the way that they acted, particularly when they were around girls, or beer, but he knew that wasn't the only thing making him wonder why Jason and Toby even kept them around. They were so much different than Jason and Toby, it just didn't make any sense to him.

"Do you have a t-shirt and gym shorts on you?" Ben asked, "Can't play basketball in a dress shirt and khaki's."

"Yup," Ezra said, making a mental note to grab his basketball shorts and put them in his bag after gym, and Jason nodded.

"You play a lot before?"

"A little, after school in New York if you were looking to play something, basketball was it," He replied, as the crowd of them started to head towards the doors – surprisingly Ali hadn't really made a peep, "Of course, I'm not the most athletic…"

"We'll just make sure we don't put you and Tobes on the same team," Ben joked and Toby didn't say anything.

"Awe, we're uneven," It occurred to Sean, and Ezra shrugged.

"Why don't we ask someone else to play? Maybe Noel?"

"Noel," Sean said.

"Dude, we can play three on three!" Ben and Sean walked off very excitedly to their first period Physics class.

"See you guys later," Spencer took off too.

One by one everyone left for class until it was just Aria and Ezra, walking to their first period class.

"You really don't have to play with them if you don't want," Aria reminded him, and he shook his head as they took their usual seats in the side corner of the room.

"No, I like Toby and Jason," Ezra told her and she rolled her eyes.

"Sean and Ben are a little rough around the edges," Aria admitted, "But they do grow on you."

"I'm not interested in letting them grow on me," Ezra replied and Aria rolled her eyes.

"Seriously?"

"Trust me, the stuff they say in front of you girls is much tamer than when there's only testosterone in the room," Ezra smiled, wanting desperately for the subject to be changed.

"I'm sorry," Aria smiled weakly, and he nodded.

"It's fine," He replied, "I'm just glad Jason's willing to talk to me."

"Why wouldn't he want to talk to you?" Aria looked confused, "He doesn't blame you."

"Yeah, but I do," Ezra said and Aria's face dropped a little as the teacher walked in.

"Ezra…" she was looking at him.

"It's ok," He replied and she shook her head.

"We'll talk about this later? Come by after basketball?"

"Come by?" He whispered back, "When's your mom get back."

"Not til late tonight, there's an art opening," Aria replied, and Ezra nodded.

They went through the rest of the day as best as they could, until they got to lunch. Chemistry had been a little rough, but Ezra had walked with Aria so that they got there at the same time. They sat together, and Ali had no choice but to sit in front of them. Not that that stopped her from trying to flirt with Ezra, but it was a little more comforting to Aria to have Ezra sitting next to her, sneaking her adoring side glances, and even at one point risking a hand over to her thigh.

"You coming to lunch today?" Ali asked, eyeing Ezra up and down without shame.

"Yeah," Aria nodded as they headed towards the gym.

"Well see you then," Ali winked at Ezra, who pretended not to notice as he looked over at Aria happily.

"So homework date, tonight?" Ezra asked, once he was sure no one would overhear him, "After basketball, and whatever Ali has planned?"

"Sure," Aria said, smiling slightly, "But why don't we go to the library."

"I thought we were going to your place," Ezra paused outside the boys' locker room, "I thought we were avoiding being out in public?"

"The library?" She repeated, "No one's going to see us."

"Ok," He smiled, stopping himself last minute from dipping down and kissing her forehead before she walked away towards the girl's locker room.

Aria went through the rest of her day without much of a problem, even Jason was ok in Health class. He was friendly, he still didn't speak directly to her, but he also didn't completely ignore her existence. However, she was starting to see what Ezra had meant about him not exactly being Jason's favorite person to see. Jason didn't seem too excited, and while their seats were set up so that Aria was sitting in the middle of them, and Jason spoke with Ezra, he seemed colder than usual. Aria didn't take it too literally, Jason was still healing, and Ezra seemed to not be too put off by it. After school, the girls all piled into Spencer's car, and the guys all got into their cars to head over to the basketball courts.

"Why'd you tell me that story about your brother?" Jason asked, as he and Ezra were the only ones left by the cars.

"I just, I don't know," Ezra replied, and Jason nodded.

"Well, from what I can tell," He said, "You and your brother have absolutely nothing in common. He sounds like an asshole, whereas you, you just… I don't know what to call it – but it's nothing like what you did."

"Thanks?" Ezra was suspicious and Jason nodded.

"Your brother sounds like a real ass, doing that shit just because he can," Jason said, "You, I understand. You tried not to, but when you realized you couldn't, you owned it. You went all in, and you're in love with her, and she's in love with you. You did the right thing,, you do know that, right?"

"Yeah," Ezra didn't seem all that convinced, and Jason threw the ball to him.

"Ezra," Jason said, as they headed over to meet up with Toby, Ben, Noel, and Sean, "Dude, if I say anything stupid to you – I'm sorry. I don't mean it. I'm just trying to get better. Knowing you're what she wants – it doesn't help."

"Gotcha," Ezra replied as they got onto the path to the court.

"C'mon girlies," Ben called, "We can have afternoon tea and crumpets later."

"We're coming," Jason called, Noel was standing with them, he seemed just excited to be invited.

"Who's shirts who's skins?" Ben asked and Jason took a deep breath as Ezra chucked him the ball.

"Tobes, Ez, and I'll be skins," Jason sighed, and then smirked as he looked at Ben, "You three girls can keep your shirts on."

Toby, Jason, and Ezra shed their shirts and they started to play. For the first time in a long time, they were all having a good time, and not worrying about anything else that was going on. They were laughing and joking and playing around for the full afternoon. By the time they were starting to get tired, the sun was starting to go down out of the sky.

"Hey, boys," Ali smiled as she walked over, "Lookin' good, Ez."

"Oh shit," Ezra looked at his watch, "I have to go."

"Mind giving me a lift home?" Ali aske,d and Ezra rolled his eyes.

"I have to be somewhere," He replied, "I'm not even heading in that direction. Wouldn't it be easier for Jason to just drive you home?"

"I'm going to the game, at the school," Jason looked at him apologetically.

"I can give you a lift," Ben offered, and she looked at Ezra like he was the only lifeboat left.

"How did you get here?" Toby asked as Ezra threw his t-shirt back on.

"I can give you a lift home," Sean offered as Ezra threw his bag over his shoulder.

"Thanks, man," Ezra said, not letting Ali come up with an excuse to say no while he ran off towards his car.

He didn't even wait for a second once he got into the car, and headed off towards the library. He left his gym back in the backseat and grabbed his book bag as he headed inside. He checked his phone as he ran into the bathroom to clean up quickly.

_Hey I'm upstairs, in the fiction section I found us a couch and a coffee table xoxo ~Aria. _

He smiled, rinsed his face, washed his hands, and headed up to find her. He eventually did, she was sitting in the farthest, dustiest corner of the library. It was clear that very few people ever even went back there, nevermind someone that would care to see them together. He smiled as he saw her there, reading her book.

"Hey," He smiled as he sat down nect to her and kissed the side of her head, "Sorry I'm late, Ali tried to corner me into giving her a ride home."

"You didn't, did you?" Aria was suddenly ridden with jealousy – more than she would have expected.

"No," He replied, leaning in and kissing he softly, "Why would I? You know if we just told everyone, we wouldn't have to worry about it."

"Ezra, there hasn't been a day that Ali didn't know everything that was going on since we were kids," Aria told him, "She knows we're together, everyone does – the only reason we're waiting to tell everyone is Jason, you know that."

"So why is she being so…"

"It's a question I ask myself everyday," Aria replied, "Now what was that this morning, blaming yourself for the whole Jason thing?"

"It's nothing," Ezra said, "I love you."

"That's not true."

"It's not true that I love you?" He teased her, and she shook her head.

"No, it's not true that it's nothing," She replied, and he nodded.

"You're right, it's just something with Sam, don't worry about it."

"Your brother? Is there something wrong with him?" Aria asked, "And what does he have to do with us? Or Jason?"

"Nothing" He replied, though he didn't sound all too convinced as he fixed her hair, putting a strand behind her ear affectionately, pecking her forehead, "And yes there's something wrong with him, but it's not life-threatening."

"You don't sound convinced."

"We should do our homework," Ezra smiled weakly, wrapping his arms around her.


	12. Don't Apologize

A/N: Hey guys… I'm so sorry this chapter took this long! Aghhh I've been really busy… but I hope you all enjoy the chapter!

Rosewood, Subtract All Tragedies

Chapter Twelve:

**** Two Years Ago ** **

Ezra was sitting in the cafeteria at his school in New York, with his usual friend group. Nick, Tucker, and Luca, then sitting with them today was his twin brother, Sam. Sam had a tendency to simply want to take away from Ezra all that he could, or at least that was what it seemed like to him. Ezra still hadn't quite forgiven him for his latest stunt with Ezra's –now Sam's latest girlfriend. He assumed that was why Sam was bugging him and his friends as they had been trying to eat lunch in peace. Ezra rolled his eyes and bit into his sandwich.

"Hey, are you guys all coming to my party Friday night?" He asked from the end of the table, and Ezra glanced over at him unappreciatively.

"What party?" Nick asked.

"C'mon, Bro, you didn't invite them to the party?"

Sam really got on his nerves – a lot of the time.

"It's _your_ party," I reminded him, and he nodded.

"But we're brothers."

"Try not to remind me," Ezra said unhappily, but Sam ignored his comment.

"Anyways, you three should come," Sam said, shooting a smile at Ezra when he thought he was looking, "It'll be fun."

"Thanks," said Nick, knowing his friend's ongoing battle with Sam, "But we're hanging out at Luca's tonight."

"Suit yourselves," Sam replied, and he got up and walked away.

"There are some days I'm so glad that you guys aren't identical," Tucker said and the rest of them chuckled.

"It wouldn't have an effect on their personalities," Luca reminded him, and I nodded.

"Yeah," Ezra agreed, "I wouldn't want to look like him."

It wasn't that his brother was hideous with awful malformations; it was just nice to be different. Seeing as the brothers looked quite a like with one striking difference – Sam was blonde – no one ever really confused them. When they were younger they had both been blonde, but Ezra's had slowly started to darken as the years went on. It was nice, now that they looked so different, with no one swapping their names, no one calling on one in class when meaning the other, or calling the wrong name in the hallways. Ezra took a deep breath as the bell rang.

He could feel himself turning into a terrible person as he walked, he was looking forward to the day that he would no longer be in the same area as Sam, to finally be out from under his thumb. He kept thinking that it would only be another fight between mom and dad where just a few too many harsh words were yelled across the apartment. That was all it would take, and then he'd be home free. He shook himself out of his train of thought mentally before letting it go much further. He really had to stop thinking like that.

"You ready for the English test?" Luca asked him.

"Who are you kidding?" Nick laughed as they got up from their table and were heading back towards the hall, "It's Fitz, the guy lives to read."

**** Present Day ****

Ezra was sitting in Aria's living room on the couch with his arms around her. Her father, who had told him to simply call him Byron several times was in his office grading papers, and her mother wasn't home yet. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head without taking his eyes off the page that he was reading of his book. She was happily leaning back in his arms, and working on an essay that she had yet to write for their English class.

"What time does your mom get home?" He asked and Aria just looked at him.

"I told you, I talked to her," She said, "And she agreed to give you a shot."

"Thanks, but I still don't think we should push it," Ezra said and Aria just looked at him, then leaned in and kissed him softly.

"I think that you think too much," She smirked, and he leaned in and kissed her.

"Hey guys," Byron walked in, forcing them to pull apart.

"Dad!" Aria blushed.

"I was just wondering if Ezra was planning on staying for dinner," He replied, "We're having Chicken Parmesan. It's delicious, you should stay."

"Ok," Ezra seemed really surprised at the invitation to dinner.

"Ok then," Byron smiled in a self-satisfied manor as he headed back into the kitchen.

"Ezra," Aria said as Byron disappeared.

"Yes?" He smiled down at her.

"I am so sick of Ali and everyone and I think we should just come out with it," She said, "Tomorrow at school – and we should just be a couple."

"You think that's a good idea?" He asked, giving her a slightly scared smile.

"Yeah," She said, defiantly, "I'm ready, it's been a month – and I think it'll be ok."

"Ok," He replied, then took a deep breath, "We'll do it tomorrow."

"Wait, you've been talking to Jason, right?" Aria said, "Do you think he'll be ok? And I want to meet our mom!"

"I think he'll be fine whenever it comes out," Ezra told her, "He knows it's coming. And I'm sure she'd love to meet you too."

"Well he just started talking to me again –kind of," Aria said, he had begun to acknowledge and contribute to what she was saying sometimes.

"He'll be ok," He assured her, kissing her temple adoringly, "He's going to be a little upset, but he'll be ok."

"Ok," Aria agreed and Ezra nodded as Mike waked into the room.

"Dad says dinner's ready, mom should be home in a few minutes," He announced, then headed back towards the kitchen.

Aria was proud, for once of how well her parents were doing with Ezra. She had sat her mother down a few weeks ago and had a very kind, polite, conversation on why she was no longer with Jason, and how she was with Ezra now. She had seemingly gotten through to her, and while it was still painfully obvious that she preferred Jason, she was a little more accepting of Ezra, which was all they had needed. Ezra was charming, and helpful, and kind – the kind of guy mothers loved, once they got to know him they would be all set.

What Aria was somewhat anxious about was the next day at school. There was no more hiding, and no more sadness – but there was going to be collateral. Letting everyone know that they were together was going to cost something, except she wasn't quite sure what it would be. Ali could be scary, and Aria had no clue what she would do. Aria knew what her friend was capable – but what she would actually do, she didn't know.

"Good morning, beautiful," Ezra smiled as Aria walked up to the car and hopped in – it would be just them that day on the way to school.

"Hey," She smiled, leaning across the center console and kissing him good morning.

"And you're sure you want to do this, today?" He checked, and Aria nodded.

"Today's the day Jason plays basketball before school, with a friend from across town," Aria said, "He won't be there, and we can act as couplely as we want."

"What about everyone else?"

"What about them? Toby and Hanna already know," Aria pointed out.

"Yes, but what about Emily? Spencer? Ali?" Ezra checked and Aria rolled her eyes.

"Em'll be pissed I didn't tell her," Aria replied, racking her brain, "And Spencer, I'm not sure about Spencer, but c'mon – it won't be that bad."

Ezra parked the car where he usually did, over near where everyone else did. They got out of the car, and waved to their group of friends, who were like always, standing around the front steps near the bike racks. Ali, Emily, Spencer, Hanna, Ben, and Sean were all gathered around. Ian was lingering in the background; it appeared he was starting to fall into Ali's original ploy.

"Ready?" Ezra whispered, as they were walking up from the parking lot.

"Absolutely," Aria smiled at him, slipping her hand into his as he leaned over and kissed her temple, like he'd done a hundred times, only this time it was in front of everyone.

Once they turned around to head over towards the group, the only ones without shocked faces were Toby and Hannah. Emily, Ben, Spencer, and Sean looked like they had just seen something like a unicorn, or some other mystical creature they never thought they would see. Ali looked more like she had been dethroned, and from the look on her face she was not at all happy about it, in the slightest. Aria looked up at Ezra and he smiled, trying to keep in the euphoric mood he wanted to be in.

"Aria, one step at a time, remember?" He said, and she nodded as he leaned down and kissed her.

Ali was gone by the time that they reached the group, and she had taken Spencer and Ben with her when she had. Emily, Sean, Hanna, and Toby, the first two with their mouths gaping open still had wide eyes as Ezra and Aria stopped to stand with them.

"When did this happen?" Emily asked, "And why don't you two look more surprised?"

"We've known," Toby admitted.

"Is this why you broke up with Jason?" Sean asked, but Hanna handled that as she cut across him.

"We've known for a while," Hanna added to Toby's statement, "And they're so cute, look at them."

"I can't believe you didn't tell me," Emily looked hurt.

"I can't believe that – does Jason know about this?" Sean asked, looking to Ezra.

"He does," Ezra replied, "And he's been – good about it. Unbelievably so."

"So what exactly is this?" Emily asked and Aria took a deep breath.

"We're a couple," Aria told her and her eyes went wide.

"I have class," Emily said, clearly hurt by not being in the know.

"I've got her," Hanna said, taking off after her.

"I can't believe you'd do this to Jason, either of you," Sean said, and Toby took off after him as he went in the opposite direction.

"Well that went…"

"Worse than expected," Aria completed Ezra's thought, and he nodded.

Aria shifted closer to him, and he wrapped an arm around her, kissing the top of her head trying to comfort her. She looked up at him and he smiled weakly, trying to keep her spirits up too.

"Still worth it?" He asked, because he had to.

"They'll come around," Aria replied, leaning up and kissing him, "And yes, you're worth it."

"You sure about that?" Ezra couldn't fight the guilt that was starting to feel toxic to him.

Aria put her hand up on the side of his jaw, then let it slide down to his chin.

"Absolutely."

His smile was a little stronger as she pulled away from him, and took his hand. The bell telling them to head to first period rang, and we turned to head towards the front door of the school.

"Ez!" They heard from behind them, and they turned around.

"Ezra!"

There were two teenage boys, about eighteen heading towards them, running towards them.

"Sam? Nick?" Aria looked up at Ezra, and he looked like he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Sam like your brother?"

"Yeah," Ezra replied, and Aria looked surprised, "Go ahead to class, I'll catch up with you."

"You promise?" Aria asked, and Ezra nodded as she leaned up and kissed his cheek, scurrying off just before Sam and Nick got to Ezra.

"What're you guys doing here?" Ezra asked.

"We came to visit you," Sam said, "We have the week off, so I was coming down – I asked Nick if he wanted to come."

"Who was that?" Nick smirked.

"Aria," Ezra replied, "My girlfriend – Does mom know you're here?"

"She does," Sam replied, "Called her this morning to tell her Nick and I were coming."

"Oh," I said, handing Sam my house key, "Look, I have to get to class – meet up with you guys later?"

"No problem, Ez," Nick nodded, Ezra gave him a quick hug then headed into school.

He walked into English late, and sat in his usual seat next to Aria. Spencer was, as always, sitting behind her. Throughout the entire class, Aria kept turning around and trying to get Spencer to talk to her, but it didn't work. I was trying to process, I was supposed to hang out with Aria after school, but now Sam and Nick were here - he didn't know what he was supposed to do. He wouldn't mind Aria meeting Nick at all, but Sam? Was he ready to make that leap? He had thought that moving in with mom would mean that he wouldn't have to deal with Sam. Luckily he didn't really get a chance to talk with Aria until they waked into Lunch.

"So Sam and Nick?"

"Nick's my best friend," Ezra began to explain, "Has been since Kindergarten, Sam's obviously my brother."

"You didn't seem too excited about seeing him," Aria pointed out and Ezra took a deep breath.

"My brother and I don't have the best relationship," He replied, as Ali, Jason, Sean, Hanna, Toby, Spencer, Sean, Ben, and Emily appeared at the end of the table.

They looked around like they didn't see us, or rather Ali did. Jason gave us a weak smile, Hanna gave me an apologetic look, Emily looked sad, and Toby shrugged nervously before Ali led them away from the table. Ezra took a deep breath.

"That's Ali, that's not them," Ezra tried to assure her.

"Why don't you get along with Sam?" Aria asked, clearly not wanting to discuss her friends.

"We're just very different people," Ezra replied blandly, and Aria just looked at him, waiting for a further explanation, "Sam, likes to make everything about him, and wants whatever I have, it doesn't matter what it is…"

"Like me?" Aria asked and Ezra shrugged.

"Like girls that I've tried to date in the past, yes," He replied and Aria nodded.

"Was that why you sent me away this morning?"

"That and I didn't want you to miss anymore school because of me," He replied and Aria shook her head at him.

"Ezra, I'm not going anywhere," Aria smiled good-naturedly.

"It was more of a shock and terrifying moment," He replied, "Because – I adore you, Aria. I mean, truly I feel so much more for you than I could ever imagine feeling for anyone, ever. The idea that you might get ripped away from me, by my own brother – it's terrifying to me."

"Ezra, once again, I'm not going anywhere, ok?" Aria told him, "However, if you want to wait a little while – it's up to you."

"Would you mind meeting up with Nick after school?" He asked.

"Sure," Aria smiled, "Oh, Crap, I'm supposed to make sure Mike gets home after school."

"Well I could drive him," Ezra offered, "We can drop him off then head off and pick Nick up."

"Ok," Aria replied, taking a deep breath, then Ezra caught her glancing over at her friends.

"They'll come around, Aria," He smiled bravely, "I promise – and if they don't – I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Ezra," Aria looked almost sternly serious, "You have nothing to be sorry about."

"It feels like I do," He replied and Aria shook her head,

"Don't - -babe, relax, ok? It's hard enough with them all being mad, I can't handle you being upset too."

"Ok," He replied and Aria smiled, "Anything that'll put that smile on your face."

They walked into their last class of the day, hand in hand their faces dropped. They had just walked into Health class, with Jason and Emily. Emily was sitting across the room from where she usually sat, with them, and Jason wasn't even there yet. Aria shot Emily a soft smile, and Emily pretended to not even notice. The whole exchange didn't go unnoticed by Ezra who looked more depressed than anything about it. Emily was her oldest friend. He squeezed Aria's hand affectionately as they sat in their normal seats.

"Emily," Aria seemed surprised and Ezra took a deep breath.

"Aria—"

"Don't apologize," Aria replied, almost dangerously and Ezra nodded as the bell rang and Jason walked in.

He walked right up and sat down in front of them, turning around and smiling.

"Hey guys, sorry about that at lunch," He said, "I would've sat with you, and I should have – I just thought it would be awkward, or something."

"It's fine, Jason," said Ezra, his mood improving almost instantly.

"Thanks, Jason," Aria said and Jason smiled.

"Honestly," He smiled, "It's good to see you guys together – you're happy. If they can't deal with that that's their problem."

"You mean Ali's problem," Aria said and Jason nodded.

"What're you guys doing after school?" He asked and Aria looked to Ezra.

"Ezra's friend from New York's in town," Aria said, "We were going to go and hang out with him after school."

"Mind if I tag along?" He asked and Ezra smiled.

"Of course," Ezra replied, just excited that he wanted to at all.

"Definitely, of course, Jason," Aria leaned slightly onto Ezra as she was beaming.

"Jason?" Emily said from across the room, "There's a seat over here if you want it."

"I don't, but thanks, Em," Jason replied, smiling at her kindly, "But you can come over here and sit if you want."

"Why do you want to sit with them? I mean, Jason –"

"Why wouldn't I want to see them?" Jason asked, "This is Aria, your best friend since you were about six. You're really going to let Ali make you turn your back on her? Really, Em?"


End file.
